reason and industry of the more prudent there appeared betwixt them so notable a difference that it seemed that it might be said that the former were not men in comparison of the latter So Celot speaks and pretends in the sequel of his discourse that d Quemadmodum in priscorum seculorum hominibus adeo fuit obrutus divinus igniâ— ment is rationis ut cum posteriorum aetaetum politis legantibus ingeniis comparati vix homines appareant Celot l. 5. c. 10. p. 314. as the Heavenly fire of reason had so little vigour amongst the men of the first ages of the world that comparing it with the beauty and politeness of the spirits of latter ages it was hard to believe that they were men In like manner Saint Anthony Saint Paul and the other Hermits who lived in the first ages of the Church compared with the Religious of this present cannot without difficulty passe for true Religious whereas we have cause to wish that these last might be set in comparison with the former and were all worthy to bear the name of their disciples and children In the mean time he is so firm and resolute in his opinion that he cannot so much as onely suffer that the examples of these ancient Fathers of the Monks should be alledged being not willing they should be otherwise considered then as children For see how he bespeaks his adversary e Nae â—u durus importunus qui ad exempla nascentis monachismi perpetuo provocas Ibid. p. 241. You are troublesom and importunate alledging unto us continually the examples of those who lived when the institution of Monks was but yet in its infancy Which he bears so aloft that he fears not to say in expresse terms f Meminerit interim hujusmodi interrogationibus antiquitatem sine periculo respectari nâ—n posse Ibid. That antiquity cannot be attended to without danger As if the opinions and the examples of the Holy Fathers and of the first Religious were not onely unprofitable but also dangerous and that it were more safe to raze them out of the memories of men then to regard and consider them But if there be danger to attend unto antiquity and consider those great Saints who lived in the first ages of the Church it is dangerous also to write and read their lives without doubt for fear that those who observe and read them should thereby become affected with them and imitate them it being manifest that they are not read nor written but on this design We must also condemn the whole Church who publickly celebrates and honors their memory and demands of God for her children grace to imitate them as she declares often in her office So that it cannot be dangerous to observe these ancient Fathers and first Religious and to follow their examples but onely for those who have introduced so many novelties both into their Doctrine and into their conduct that the sole view of antiquity from which they are so prodigiously departed suffices to convince and to confound them ARTICLE II. Of the Doctrine of Probability A Whole Book may be made of this Article which is the principal of this Extract as also the subject which is here handled is the most general and important of the Jesuits Divinity in which in a manner all things are probable as may be seen by Escobars six Volumes of Problematique Divinity which comes to passe not onely by necessity because they examine and regulate all things by their sense and by their reason in quitting the authority of Tradition which onely can quiet the spirit of man and give him some assurance and certainty in the knowledge of truths and particularly of those which respect Religion and manners but also by a particular design of the Society because desiring to govern all the World and not being able without having wherewith to content all sorts of persons there is no means more easie nor Doctrine more commodious for this then that of probability which gives liberty to say and do all that one will as it shall clearly appear in the prosecution of this Article where we will first represent the principal opinions and maximes of the Jesuits touching the Doctrine of probability and in consequence thereof the pernicious effects which it produceth in the Church and in the world which shall be the two principal points of this Article I. POINT The principal maximes of the Jesuits concerning probability THe Doctrine of probability taken out of the Jesuits Books consists particularly in these following points 1. That the Jesuits Divinity makes all things probable 2. That they pretend that an opinion is probable though it be held onely by one single Divine 3. That of two probable opinions we may choose that which is lesse probable and safe 4. That we may even follow sometimes one and sometimes the other though they be contraries Because that these points for the most part depend one on another and are ordinarily handled together and in connexion by the Casuists I will not separate them at all Yet that I may keep some order and hinder the tediousness and confusion which would happen if I should amasse in one sole Article all that I have to relate upon every one of these points I will represent apart the opinions of the principal Jesuit Authors who treat thereon beginning with Layman and Azor who are the most famous of the Society SECT I. The opinion of Layman and of Azor concerning probability LAyman establisheth fairly at first for a fundamental maxime a Ex duabus probabilibus partibus quaestionis licitum est eam sequi quae minus tuta est that when there are two probable opinions about one question it is lawful to follow that Which is lesse sure Of which he renders this reason b Quia in moralibus operationibus necesse non est sequi quod optimum tutissimum sed sufficit sequi bonum ac tutum Layman lib. 1. tract 1. cap. 5. sact 2. p. 4. Because in moral actions it is not necessary to follow the rule Which is absolutely the best and most safe and it sufficeth that it be absolutely good and sure Now he pretends c Quod autem probabilis opinio tradit id bonum ac licitum est Ibid. that what is supported by a probable opinion is simply good and lawful taking lawful and safe for the same thing But if they demand what will make an opinion probable see here the conditions which he requires thereto and the definition which he gives thereof d Probabilis sententia uti communiter accipitur ita definiri potest Quae certitudinem non habens tamen vel gravi autoritate vel non modici momenti ratione nititur Ibid. p. 5. we may call that a probable opinion as it is commonly understood which being not certain and undubitable is notwithstanding supported by some considerable authority or some reason which is not sleight He
follow that which he believes to be less probable and to prove their opinion he lends them a reason of which he oftentimes made use before in like cases about other matters e Quia nec temere nec imprudenter agit utpote qui ratione probabili ducitur Ibid. n. 46. Because a Judge doth not herein behave himself rashly or imprudently guiding himself as he doth by a probable opinion Which obligeth him to approve the opinion of these Authors though he dares not follow it f Quamvis autem hoc sit probabile probabilius judico eum teneri sententiam serre juxta opinionem probabiliorem Ibid. n. 47. Because though it be probable yet he believes it to be more probable that a Judge is obliged to Judge according to the more probable opinion There are none therefore but Casuists and directors of consciences alone that are absolutely exempt from this obligation It is of them alone that we are to understand that which Filliutius said above g Licitum est sequi opinionem minus probabilem etiamsi minus tuta sit It is lawful to follow the less probable opinion though it be also less safe And it is to them onely that we are to referre all those maximes and conclusions which we have seen him and his fraternity draw from this principle And though in this they favour indeed those of other professions in fixing them more unto truth and Justice and leaving them less liberty to depart from it yet it is not this they regard particularly their principal design is to favour themselves in giving to themselves a power to dispose of the power of Jesus Christ of his ministry of the consciences and Salvation of men according to their fancy and do in the Church whatsoever they please without considering that there is no greater misery then to love licence and to be able to do what one will against justice and truth II. POINT The pernicious consequences and effects of the Jesuits Doctrine of probability IF the Tree may be known by its fruit and if a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit as Jesus Christ saith in the Gospel we may confidently affirm that the Doctrine of probability is the most dangerous that ever appeared in the Church and in the world because it overturns all things in them both There is no Chapter in this book that proves not this truth but because it is important and that there are it may be many persons that will hardly believeit and will not easily observe it through the whole extent of this treatise I will represent here some of the principal proofs of the pernicious consequences and unhappy effects of this Doctrine 1. It favours and nurses up weak and disorderly persons in their mistakes and disorders sinners and libertines in their bad courses hereticks in their heresies and Pagans in their infidelity 2. It teaches to elude the Commandments of God and the Church and it overturns Laws Civil Ecclesiastick and Divine 3. It destroys the authority of Princes over their Subjects of Pastors of the Church over the Faithful of Fathers over their children Masters over their Servants of Superiours in Religious Orders over their Inferiours and generally of all Superiours over their Inferiours 4. It introduces independence and leads to irreligion 5. It cannot be destroyed nor hindred from having course in the world if it be once therein received and taught Every one of these points are handled largely enough in diverse places of this Book where may beseen the passages of the Jesuits Authors which I have cited for their verification Wherefore to avoid repetitions I shall often onely give a short touch here as I passe of what they say upon the most part of these points relating upon the rest some other new passages of their Authors I will also recite some out of one of their principal and most faithful disciples and partakers Caramuel by name This is the onely exception to be found in all this work of my design which I have to rehearse onely the Authors of the Society if yet in this it can be said that I depart from my design since it is still onely the Jesuits that speak by the mouth of one of their disciples who doth nothing but deduce and explicate their opinions But if sometimes he seem to be transported and to expatiate too far in the licence of their Doctrine he draws always his conclusions from their Doctrines and he often supports them by their very reasons and in all the liberty of his stile and spirit he advances nothing but what is comprised and contained in the maximes of the Society which I have represented in the preceding Articles It had not been hard for me to have drawn the very same consequences with him But besides that I make some scruple to aggravate or publish the mischief before it appeares and breaks forth of its own accord it goes sometimes to such an excesse that it seems incredible if they themselves who are the Authors thereof did not both own and publish it And this hath caused me to take this disciple of the Jesuits for the interpreter of their opinions as being proper to represent most clearly and most surely the pernicious effects of their Doctrine of probability But because the matter is of great extent I will divide them into several Paragraphs according to the points I even now observed SECT I. That the Jesuits Doctrine of probability favours disorderly persons libertins and infideles 1. IT favours weak and disorderly persons and nuzzles them in their looseness because according to the rules of this probability there is no person of any condition who may not easily be excused of the most part of his duties general and particular continue to live in his disorder and in the abuse which the corruption of the age hath introduced and exempt himself from alms from fasting and from other good works which he may and ought to do according to the order of God and the Church that he might come out of his weaknesses and disorders since these holy exercises are the strength and nourishment of the faithful soul But all these proofs and others also which might be produced upon this point are contained in one sole maxime of the Jesuits Divinity reported by one of their chiefest disciples and defendours a Omnes opiniones probabiles sunt peraeque tutae ac securae benigniores etsi aliquando siut minus probabiles per accidens sunt semper utiliores securiores Caramuel Comment in Reg. S. Bened. l. 1. d. 6. n. 58. Item Theol. fundam p. 134. That all probable opinions are of themselves as safe the one as the other but the more pleasant although they be less probable are always more profitable and more safe by accident That is to say because of their sweetness which renders them more easie more proportionable to the inclinations of men and more favourable to their interest and softness And
important and manifest contradiction of the same Author which is found in his Practique in the 3. book 44. ch 727. p. For after he had said in the precedent page that the Ordinary may and ought admonish the Rectors to execute their charges themselves whereunto if they were not obedient they might be deprived He addes in approbation of this carriage And indeed the contrary custom seems to me only an inveterate errour which through length of time becomes greater and more abusive quia diuturnitas temporis non minuit sed auget peccatum And yet in the same Book 43. ch 715 716. pages after that he had said that the Rectors are obliged to reside on their Cures he enquires whether custom may dispense with their Residence In this affair saith he one difficulty is moved to wit whether custom not to reside on Cures can shâ—lter as well from the sin as the punishment appointed by the Council against those who fail which is that they should have no benefit by such Cures He answers that Layman and Navarre hold the affirmative and he confirms it by this reason Because according to the common axiom that which the Pope may grant by dispensation or special priviledge to any person custom gives to all a discharge thereof and that without fear especially when it is for a long time observed in the Church Citing for this opinion a sentence taken from the Const in 6. c. 1. Consuetudo vim habet legis Custom hath the force of a Law It appears clearly that in one place he saith that the use of not residing upon Cures is no other thing than an inveterate errour and in the other place that custom of not residing gives a discharge to all In one place he saith that length of time renders the errour of Non-residence greater and more abusive in the other that a custom of Non-residence frees all from the forfeiture of their Revenue especially if this custom be of long continuance in the Church It seems that this liberty of maintaining and publishing contrarieties is granted the Jesuits by their Superiors with permission to print these Books wherein such contrarieties are found Therefore it is less strange that their Superiors pretend to have this right as well as private persons and make use of it without scruple in occurrents wherein they judge it advantageous to the good of their affairs as it did appear by the answer of F. Cotton to the Gentlemen of the Parliament of Paris upon the matter of Santarel's Book which is well enough known in Paris and in France For those Gentlemen objecting to him that Viteleschi General of the Society had approved the Book he answered together with three other Jesuits that accompanied him as their Provincial That the General could not do otherwise because they at Rome would have him do so The Gentlemen of the Parliament demanded of him if he were of the same judgement and approved such proceedings He confessed that as for Santarel's Book he did not approve it at all but as to the action of the General if he had been at Rome he would have done as he did Which gave one of the Commissioners occasion to say to them You have then one conscience for Rome and another for Paris and to the Gentlemen his Colleagues to say God defend us from such Confessors Two or three months after the Gentlemen of the Parliament having proposed unto them certain Articles extracted out of the Book of Santarel that they might condemn them and others contrary to them that they might a â—rove them they did both without much trouble And yet they have since put this Book of Santarel with those of the English Jesuits against the safety of Kings and authority of Bishops and against the Discipline of the Church into the Catalogue of the Books of their Society though they had declared and protested publickly that these Books did not proceed from their Society and that they were falsly attributed unto them And lately also F. le Moine in his Apology speaks thus of these very Books We have declared a long time since that we know not these Authors which we believe not to be of our Society and also at this day we may protest in sincerity that they are as unknown to us as they were before He is not afraid to give the lye to his General Viteleschi and other Divines of his Society who have approved the Book of the Jesuit Alagambe which ascribes these Books to the very Authors Jesuits to whom they have been alwayes attributed But Father le Moine who knew them not at Paris would have known them at Rome it may be if he had been there and this same sincerity which made him protest that he knew them not in France would have made him in Flanders or in Italy have declared quite contrary by the rule of the Society which wills that they comply with the times places and humours of all the World This manner of acting and speaking is ordinary enough amongst the Jesuits and they are already so accustomed to contradictions that they fear no more the reproach which is cast upon them continually for defending vice and errour but they are rather rendy to glory therein and shortly to make publick profession thereof since Dicastillus pretends instead of blaming Diana for contradicting himself frequently in his answers he doth rather praise and thank him as for some signal service which he would do the publique in obliging the World and complying with the necessities and desires of those who consult with him c Eccehic Autor Diana sibi contrarius est id tamen quod illi non semel comigit non reprchensione sed gratiarum actione dignum est Nempe vir pro communi bono laborans communi utilitati serviens plurima lectione dives copiosus pro occurrenti consultationum quaerentium necessitate aut etiam desiderio jam huic jam illi parti adhaeret quando pars utraque probabili ratione doctorum virorum auctoritate nititur in praxi utriusvis operari tutum est Voluit aâ—tem nobis in medium proserre ad hunc ipsum sinem quid in una quid in alia occasione responderit quaerentibus Quid quaeso utilius pro praxi Haec obiter dixerim ut facessere iubeam nescio quos invidos qui haec si quae sint similia crudito viro non verentur objicere Dicastillus de Sacr. Euch. tr 4. dis 10. dub 5. n. 110. You see saith he that this Author is contrary to himself which happens unto him not once only and he deserves not to be reproved for it but rather to be thanked This man who labours for the publique good having compleated himself with great reading complying to the necessity and even unto the desire of those who consult with him follows sometimes one opinion and sometimes another when both are supported by some probable reason or the authority of learned men He observes very
it self If these questions be Problematick that is to say doubtful and probable It is probable that a man may save himself by the powers of Nature only because a man may demand Baptism upon the last gasp of life by a purely humane motive according to that probable opinion which maintains that this motive is sufficient After so gross an errour against Faith that which the same Author saith concerning Witnesses will seem little considerable but yet I cannot omit it because it shews that the Jesuits accommodations go so far as to give Hereticks a part in the Ceremonies of the Church He proposes this Question 2 Quando Gatholicus reperiri non pâ—test qui soiceptoris in baptismo munus â—beat haereticus potest non porest adnâ—…tri When we cannot find a Catholick to be a witness may we take an Heretick He answers 3 Fateor primam sententiam satis esse probabilem qula esto regulariter in quantum est haereticus non tamen est simpliciter docendi alumnum incapex tum qula potest ad fidem converti cum opus sit alumnum instruere tum quia licet in haeresi perseveret fidem Caâ—nolicam docere poterit sicuti potest peccator concionator persuadere virtuâ—em licet ipse sit à virtute alienus ergo potest Patrinus haereticus levando de facro fonte bapâ—ismatum legitimam promittere instructionem quod maximè verum baber si Sacerdos ut debet parences ac patrinum de obligatione iâ— struendi baptizatum in fide Catholica per baptismum suscepta moneat Escobar tom 2. lib. 11. Probl. 130. That the opinion which permits this for which he cites Layman appears unto him probable enough for saith he this Heretick may be converted unto the Faith and though be be not converted at all he may teach the Catholick Religion to his Godâ—son as a vicious Preacher may perswade unto vertue So an Heretical God-father receiving a Child from the Font may promise to instruct him as he ought Which is especially true if the Priest do admonish as he ought the Father and God-father of their obligation to instruct him that is baptized in the Catholick Faith which he hath received by Baptism We must have very much faith or rather none at all and as little reason to believe and imagine that the Faithful may be made believe that an Heretick who hath lost the faith may be received and be proper to communicate it to an infant in Baptism so that the Church may or ought receive him as a surety of the promises which the infant is to make by his mouth who hath satisfified his own and that this is not to treat unworthily the most holy things and to prophane them to commit them to an excommunicated person Tambourin may pretend himself exempt from one part of this reproach because he maintains 1 Probabilius est ex Sanch. l. 4. m. d. c. 1. n. ult in baptismo nullum fiâ—…i votum aut promissionem de obedientia fidei Tamb. meth confess lib. 2. cap. 2. That it is more probable that in Baptism there is no vow nor promise made to obey the Faith But I know not whether he pretend that those who receive Baptism or those who answer for them to whom it is administred do therein make use of the Art of Aequivocations For there is no other means not to oblige ones self to obey the Faith when one protests solemnly to believe in God and for ever renounce the Devil his Works and Pomps II. POINT That the Jesuits divert the Faithful from Confirmation by discharging them from the Obligation to receive it AS for what concerns Confirmation Filliutius treating of the Obligation to receive it saith 2 Olim â—b frequentes persecutiones videtur fuisse praeceptum divinum obligans vel semel in vita vel in neeâ—sitate confessionis fidei habita opportunitate That it seems that heretofore because of the Persecutions which then were frequent there was a Commandment from God which obliged to receive this Sacrament once in the time of life or at least when there happened any necessity of confessing the Faith if convenience were had for it He forbears not to say a little after that according to his advice 3 Cessante necessitate videtur expirasse praeceptum abrogatum consuetudine Filliut tom 1. mor. qq ir 3. c. 2. n. 40. 41. p 55. The necessity being past the Commandment hath been abrogated and extinguished by custom He believes then that custom that is to say the will and negligence of men is capable to abolish the Commands of God without regard to the protestation which the Son of God himself makes in the Gospel that Heaven and Earth may change sooner than his Word and that one sole letter or single point of the Law shall never be defaced The Jesuits may well despise this Word and craze this Law out of their Writings and out of their Books but it shall abide eternally in the Book of God which is the Gospel who shall condemn them at the day of Judgment who have taught as well as those who have done contrary to what he saith The Errour of this Jesuit is a Principle for the destruction of the Gospel and all Religion For if customs of men and length of time may destroy one Commandment of God it may also destroy all the rest and Christian Religion shall depend upon the times and the fancies of men it shall be altogether voluntary and temporal and not eternal and founded on the unmoveable Rock of Gods Will but on the moveable sand of mans But as these people play with the Word and Commandments of God making them depend on the Creatures they also sport themselves with their own opinions by overturning them as soon as they have establisht them For the same Filliutius who acknowledges that there was at the beginning in the Church a divine Command to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation testifies a little after that there was never any such So there is nothing certain according to these Doctors neither in the divine Law and Word nor in their own imaginations 4 Dico 3. probâ—bile esse per se loquendo non fuisse daâ—um pâ—aeceptum hujus Sacramenti Ibid. n. 42. I say in the third place saith he that speaking absolutely it is probable that there never was any Precept to receive this Sacrament He speaks generally of any Commandment whatsoever acknowledging none neither from God nor the Church for the Sacrament of Confirmation making us see also that the Doctrine of the English Jesuits who took away all fort of obligation to receive this Sacrament came not from themselves only but from the Spirit and School of their Society as well as the other errours of their Books condemned by the Faculty of Paris and by the Authority of the Clergy of France Escobar discovers yet more clearly this Doctrine of his Company in his Problems amongst
they had introduced into Christian Morality and having reduced them unto certain heads with a very neat and pure order which may be worthy to have the name of the particular Character of his Spirit But God permitted that when he had finished this so important Work he delivered it into the hands of a Doctor one of his Friends that he might communicate it unto others who were of known Learning and Zeal This Doctor acquitted himself faithfully in this Commission but those to whom he committed this Book that they might examine it being diverted therefrom by a multitude of affairs returned no answer unto him of a long time so that the Author continuing sick saw himself nigh unto death without knowing in a manner what was become of his Book and only understood that they judged it most worthy to be printed and that the Church might draw therefrom very great advantages if it pleased God to give it his blessing As therefore he proposed unto himself in this Work no other thing than to serve the Church this answer sufficed to banish out of his mind all the disquiet which he could have had thereabouts and he very easily and without farther trouble did wholly commit the care of it to Divine providence to which he had been always most submissive This submission notwithstanding hindred not but that some time before his death he recommended it unto another of his friends whom he knew to be very greatly concerned for every thing whereunto he had relation But this Friend being not able to address himself to any other save that Doctor who had not the Book any longer in his own hands and who could not himself learn thereof any news at all saw himself speedily after out of condition to serve both the Church and his Friend in such manner as he earnestly desired Some years past over in this uncertainty of what was become of this so precious a Work at which time God who had reserved unto himself the disposal thereof caused it to fall happily into the hands of a person who had no correspondence with its Author but seeing that it might be profitable to the Church thought himself obliged to contribute all his credit and power to its publication Here you have what was thought meet for the Readers to know concerning the History of this Book It were to be desired that we might speak here more openly concerning its Author but the Society of the Jesuits have accustomed themselves so to use those who endeavour to serve them by discovering unto them the excesses wherein they engage themselves and such is the implacable fury with which they pretend to have right according to their Maxims to persecute them as will not permit us to render unto his name the glory he hath therein deserved All that we can say therein to the end we may not leave those who come after us without knowing at least something of a person to whose zeal they will esteem themselves so much obliged is only this that he seemed to have been raised to combate and confound the Errours of these Fathers He had a mind facile clear and solid a sweetness and moderation in all respects charming an humility ingenuous beyond all that can be imagined stealing away the splendour of his other vertues from the eyes even of his most intimate Friends His education was admirable and contributed not a little to the beauty of his Spirit the purity of his Learning and the innocence of his Manners For he was born of a Father who had a care altogether peculiar to him to fortifie happily his Children against popular Errours to inspire into them the most pure Maxims of the Gospel and to enlarge their minds with the fairest speculations This so sage and so Christian conduct helped very much to augment the inclination which he had unto piety so that he had no sooner finished his course in Philosophy than he proceeded of himself to the study of Divinity to which he applyed himself with so great success that being received into the Colledge and Society of Sorbonne he performed all his acts with universal applause and thereupon received there the Doctors Cap. The only thing he had to combate with in this his laudable enterprise was the passionate affection which he had for the Mathematicks For as this Science is the most assured of all humane Sciences and almost the only one in which may be found any certainty capable to satisfie a Spirit which loves the truth the love which he had even to this truth it self wrought in him so violent an inclination to this Science that he could not withhold himself from applying and busying his thoughts therein for the inventing some or other new machine But at length the Holy Spirit which did conduct his Studies made him overcome in a little time the propension he had to these innocent inquiries and curiosities and he thought that it was not sufficient for a Divine to despise the divertisements of the world but that he ought also to deprive himself of those of his mind and he did only search after the truth where it was to be found that is to say in the Holy Scripture and in the Books of the holy Fathers So that we may well say of him what S. Gregory Nazianzene said in commendations of his Brother Caesarius who had greatly loved Astrology and the Mathematicks that he had the ingenuity to draw out of these sorts of Sciences all that was profitable therein learning thence to admire the invisible greatnesses of God which were resplendent in his works and knew to defend himself from that which was pernicious in them which is the adherence they have who apply themselves thereunto to their conjectures and to those truths which they pretend to discover therein This generous disengaging himself from all other things advantaged him not a little in the progress which he made in Ecclesiastical knowledge and in that part of Divinity which they call Scholastick which conducts Reason by the light of Faith and Tradition This his progress appeared more especially in the troubles which agitated the Faculty of Divinity of Paris in the year 1656. for he there defended the truth with so great moderation that he did not render it odious but on the contrary he did astonish and surprize his enemies The zeal he had for it was ardent but this ardour was tempered by his prudence and his knowledge was not less modest than his sweetness was couragious that there might be seen equally lightning in his discourse the regard which he had not to disoblige any person and the inflexible firmity which God had given him for the defence of his truth The wounds which that renowned Body received then in its Discipline entred very deep into his heart and the grief which he received therefrom increased by the consideration of the mischiefs which the Church was threatned with and which it resents unto this day began to alter his health
and to indispose him towards that sickness whereof he dyed But nothing touched him more to the quick than the corruption which the Jesuits had introduced into the Morality of the Church He was a mortal enemy to their compliances and he could not bear with their presumption which bent them to consult no other in their Divinity than their own proper light He declared against their loosness in all the Ecclesiastick Conferences whereunto he was invited and he gave himself up particularly in the Sermons and Instructions which he made in the Churches to fortifie the Faithful against their pernicious Maxims His Discourses made so much deeper impression upon their Spirits because they were sustained by his own examples and the truths of Christianity were no less visible in his manners than they were intelligible in his words He handled all sorts of matters with such exactness and solidity as if he had employed all his life only in study of some one of them alone and it might be perceived that he studied in all his Discourses only to clear the understanding to touch hearts and heal diseases and not to puzzle the mind please the ears and flatter the diseased But the love which he had for the purity of Christian Morals was too great for to suffer him to rest so contented He believed that to heal well the mischiefs which the Jesuits had done the Church it was necessary to have a perfect knowledge thereof and to imitate Physitians who addict themselves to know the bottom of diseases before they apply themselves to any remedy He gave himself for this cause to read the Books of these Fathers and to extract out of them the principal Errours of which he hath composed this Book which we now publish but at length he could not but sink under so painful and afflicting a labour His patience found it self exhausted The grief he had to see the Morality of Jesus Christ so horribly disfigured seized his heart and cast him into such a languor as dryed him up by little and little and ravished him away from the Church after he had received with great resentments of Piety and Religion all the Sacraments at the hands of his upper Pastor I will not take in hand to give here an Idea of the design which this excellent Man hath had in this Work of the order which he hath observed of the reasons which he hath had to undertake it and of those in particular which have engaged him to cope with the Doctrine of the Jesuits because he hath himself given satisfaction in all these points in his Preface I shall only answer here to those who have wished that he had not discovered the Errours which are represented in this Work without refuting them by the true Principles of Christian Morality which are Scripture and Tradition They avow that this had been advantagious to the Church and it was the very design of the Author But this hinders not but that his labour although separated from the more large Refutation may have also its utility For they who are acquainted with the Affairs of the Church understand that it is no new thing simply to set down the Errours which the Corrupters of Faith and Manners have attempted to introduce into the Church without undertaking to combate them by long Reasoning and that S. Epiphanius as also S. Austin observed Historics narratione commemorans omnia nulla disputatione adversus falsitatem pro veritate decertans S. August de Hares hath only represented by way of History the pernicious Opinions of the greater part of Hereticks without taking in hand to refute them in particular rehearsing all things with an Historical Narration but not contending for the truth against falshood by any disputation I know well that there is cause to believe by that which S. Austin adds presently after that he had only an Abridgment of the Books of S. Epiphanius But I know also that if this Saint had seen them all entire he would still have discoursed after the same manner and that this Judgment may very justly be passed on them for that of eighty different Sects of which Epiphanius hath undertaken to report the Errours he only tracks the foot as I may say of them one by one and refutes in the manner of a Divine only four or five contenting himself in a few words and as it were on his way passing by them to shew the absurdity of the Conceits of those Hereticks and how far they were distanced from the truth See how he interprets himself in his Preface concerning the manner in which he had designed to handle these things In which truly this one thing we shall perform that we shall oppose against them as much as in us lies in a few words as it were an Antidote whereby we may expel their poysons and by Gods help may free any one who either wilfully or unawares happens to fall into these Heretical opinions as it were into the poyson of some Serpents In quo quidem hoc unum praestâ—bimus ut adversus illa quitquid in nobis situm erit paucis uno atque altero verbo velut antidotum apponamus quo illorum venens propulsemus secundum Deum quemlibet qui vel sponte vel invitus in haeretica illa dogmata velut serpentum virus inciderit si quidem velit ipse liberare possimus This is the same thing which the Author of this Book of Morals which is now made publick hath given us to see therein with a marvellous address and vivacity of Spirit For though he undertake not to refute these Errours of the Jesuits but only to discover them he does notwithstanding discover them without making their excesses to appear most plainly and the opposition also which they have to the truth and sound doctrine So that according to the progress by which we advance in reading this Book we find our selves insensibly convinced of the falsities of all the Maxims which are therein related and our minds filled with the opposite truths and our hearts piously animated against these so horrible corruptions and edified by the violence which we observe this Author hath done upon himself for to moderate his zeal and to keep himself back from refuting opinions so contrary to the common sense of the Faith For unto such evils deep sighs and groans are more agreeable than long discourses Cum talibuâ— malis magis prolixi gemitus fletus quam prolixi libri debeantur S. Aug. Epist 122. Indeed the arguings of the Jesuits which he relates and whereof they make use to authorize their monstrous opinions are so evidently contrary to the Principles and Maxims of the Gospel and to the light of Nature the abuse to which they put the words of Scripture and the Fathers is so visible and so gross and there needs so little discerning to see that they take them in a sense contrary to what they do indeed contain that these Authors
destroy themselves and are refuted themselves by themselves and it suffices simply to report their Doctrine to make appear that it overturns the Foundations of Religion and that it is not only opposite to the Wisdom of the Cross and Christian Philosophy but also to Reason and the Philosophy of the Heathens It is true that this corruption is not equally evident in all their Maxims and that to surprize more easily those who have some fear of God they do propose these unto them with some kind of temperament covering them with some specious pretences which serve for reasons to engage them to follow them without scruple But the Author of these Morals hath so dextrously unfolded all these Artifices and all these studied subtilties and hath so neatly discovered their malignity that there is no fear that those who read them will suffer themselves to be deceived by them nor that they can have any confidence in the people whom he hath made clearly to appear to have a priviledge to speak every thing that they please and not to contradict themselves at all in speaking things altogether contrary according to the diversity of places times and the interest of their Society who give themselves the liberty and the right not only of two contrary opinions to chuse that which is most for their commodity but even to follow both the two according to divers occasions and the different relishes of those who consult with them finally who content not themselves only to refute the holy Fathers the Popes and the Councils when they are not for their convenience but who also take the confidence to make them speak what they please altogether contrary to what they do speak It is true also that this Author having undertaken to make us see the general corruption which the Jesuits have spread all over the Morals could not avoid to speak of those matters which S. Paul saith ought not to be proceeded in so far as to be named by Christians and that he is forced to shew how they would make Marriage which is the Image of all pure and all holy Union of Jesus Christ with the Church and which ought to be handled with all honour to give right to shameful filthinesses which even the Pagan Philosophers themselves have condemned according to these excellent words of an ancient Author Adulter estuxoris amator acrior He is an Adulterer who is too eager a Lover of his Wife Notwithstanding he hath been careful not to transcribe those ordures with which Sanchez hath filled whole Volumes among which some have been so scandalous that they have been left out in some Editions which yet have been no hinderance to Tambourin and Amadeus to renew them where he speaks of these excesses and other such like it is with such temperance that discharging the Reader of a good part of the confusion which he might have received thereby he doth not forbear at all to instruct him sufficiently and make him conceive all that horrour wherein he ought to have these miserable Writers who seem principally to be composed to satiate their imagination with most enormous unheard of crimes Finally That which doth yet more justifie the design of the Author of these Morals and the manner wherein he handles these things is that now of a long time all these excesses which are herein rehearsed have been made publick by the Jesuits themselves who have caused them to be printed and sold and who have delivered them into the hands of an infinite of Religious persons and Directors of others not very clear sighted who think that they cannot better learn the Maxims of Christian Morality than in reading the most famous Authors of so celebrated a Society So that it will be of very great importance to make the corruptions of these Authors so known that no man may hereafter be mistaken in them And this cannot be better executed than by proposing those very same Maxims as impious and detestable which the Jesuits have propounded in their Books as good and safe this alone being sufficient to work effects altogether contrary in mens spirits as may be seen in the Example of Escobar who having been imprinted thirty nine times as a very good Book hath been now imprinted the fortieth time as one of the most mischievous Books in the whole World which hath so wrought that whereas the first thirty nine Editions were very prejudicial to the Church this fortieth hath been very beneficial unto it And the same we believe may happen in the publication of these Morals which the alone zeal and love of the purity of the Morality of Jesus Christ hath induced us to make publick It is hoped that this Publication will prevail to remove the scandal which the Jesuits have caused from the Church to which they gave place to the Hereticks to attribute those Opinions for which it hath the greatest horrour and that these unhappy persons who are separated from its communion shall not impute them unto it any more after so publick a disavowing of these Maxims altogether abominable as they are not giving them yet any advantage above the Jesuits themselves because it is not hard to make appear that the Principles of their Morality are no less corrupted nor pernicious than those of these Fathers It is hoped that this Publication will stir up the Pastors of the Church to renew the zeal which they have already made appear against the Authors of so many corruptions that they will interdict in their Diocesses the reading of these Books that they will take the ways which the Sacred Canons have prescribed them 2 Tim. 2.17 to repress so pernicious Novelties and that they will hinder them that they spread not over mens spirits as Gangrenes which waste and corrupt by little and little that which was sound and that they will fear lest while they dissemble these excesses and pass by those who are their Authors they make themselves culpable of the loss of a great number of Souls which these blind Guides seduce and train along with them into the pit We despair not even of the Jesuits themselves that they also may draw from thence the advantage which this Author hath earnestly desired to procure them For although it seems by their conduct which they have hitherto held herein that they are resolved to persevere in maintaining these damnable Maxims and to despise the wholesom advertisements which the whole Church hath given them to abandon them yet notwithstanding it may be said that if they have used them in this sort it hath been perhaps because they were not yet sufficiently convinced of the justice of the reproaches which have been cast on them and that some secret interest hath hindred them from perceiving them in the Writings of those whom they looked upon as their Adversaries But now that a person whom they cannot suspect and who hath never been engaged against them hath presented unto them so distinctly the concatenation of the Maxims
Azor. Pag. 378 Article IV. That the Jesuits teach that the Church cannot command spiritual and internal Actions that its Laws and Guidance are humane that it is it self only a Politick Body Sanchez Filliutius Layman Amicus Escobar Celot Pag. 385 THE FIRST BOOK Of the Inward and Outward Principles of SIN THE FIRST PART Of the Inward Principles of Sin These Principles are Lust Ignorance Ill Habits the Intention and the Matter or the Object of Sin I will treat severally of these five internal principles of Sin in so many different Chapters CHAPTER I. Of Lust in general CHarity and Lust divide our whole life these are the two Trees of the Gospel of which the one produceth alwayes good fruits and the other can produce none but bad As all the good which we do comes from the Spirit of God who works it in us and causes us to do it forming in our hearts those good desires which are as it were the seed thereof in the same manner Concupiscence which every one beateth within him is the general source of all the temptations which we feel or to speak better it is a continual temptation which carries us on to evil and sin in drawing us without ceasing by secret sollicitations to sensual and temporal good which serve for a bait and entertainment to our passions This is that which made St. Leo to say a Nullum peccatum sine cupiditate committitur omnis illicitus appetitus illius aviditatis est morbus S. Leo Serm. 9. de Passione cap. 4. That he committed no sin without lust and that every unlawfull desire is a sicknesse and disorder which comes from that violent motion which carries us on unto evil So that to justifie that the Divinity of the Jesuits makes an entertainment for sin we need no other proof neither can any better be brought than to shew that it favoureth and nourisheth the lusts of men as much as it can upon all occasions as I shall make clearly appear in the whole progresse of this Book by the simple representation of their Opinions and their Maximes This Chapter of Lust in general will notwithstanding not be unprofitable for that as our bodies are so composed of four qualities and four humours that there is alwayes one which is predominant and prevails above all others and which at length gives the name unto the temperament and causes one to be stiled melancholique and another cholerique thus likewise our souls are so I will not say composed but corrupted by the lusts and passions which sin hath produced therein that there is no person who carries them not all in his bosome enclosed in concupiscence which is thereof the spring and principle although they appear not nor act altogether equally in all sorts of persons yet there is commonly one more strong than the rest which domineers in every person and which seems to be as it were proper unto him adhering to his nature his age his manner of living and his condition or profession so we see that the lusts and passions of young people are other than those of the ancient that those of persons of great Birth are different from those of Peasants and Artificers and those of Merchants from those of Lawyers For this cause that I may compleatly accomplish the design I have undertaken to prove that the Divinity of the Jesuits doth favour the lusts and passions of men so much as is possible for it and consequently those sins which are the products and effects thereof I will make it appear that in every condition and profession they cherish the lust and vice which is peculiar thereunto as namely the covetousnesse and frauds of Merchants the Ambition and Vanity of the Nobility the in justice of Officers But first of all I will say something in general of the more common lusts and passions which are found in all men and are in them as it were the spring of corruption the matter of vices and the cause of all sins as Hate Pride Covetousness Vncleanness Gluttony and Injustice For this purpose I will divide this first Chapter into 6. Articles ARTICLE I. Of Hatred That the Divinity of the Jesuits entertains aversions against our Neighbour that it permits to wish and do him ill and even to kill him though it be for temporal concernments yea though also you be assured that in killing him you damn him BAuny in his Summe after he had delivered unto us the marks of an irreconcilable hatred in these terms a Bauny in his Summe ch 7. p. 81. The third mark of hatred against our neighbour is not to be willing to accompany him to have such an alienation and so violent from him as not to refuse to talk with him upon any matter whatsoever nor to assist him in his businesse or not to pardon him at all when he acknowledges his fault and offers reasonable satisfaction And after he hath reported two authorities and two passages one of St. Ambrose and the other of St. Austen in which these holy Doctors shew us the obligation we have to love and wish well to one another and to serve one another as members of the same body he concludes boldly in this manner Notwithstanding I believe it is no mortal sin to be wanting in these points if it be not in case of scandal that is to say it is never or almost never mortal sin according to the doctrine which he establisheth Chap. 39. p. 623. that a man is not capable of the sin of scandal but when by a formal design he doth some thing to destroy his neighbours soul which is a design of hell and which seems not easily to come into the spirits of other persons than the damned and Devils Anthony de Escobar sayes the same thing briefly in his Moral Divinity where after he hath put this question b An indignatio non volentis videre vel audire eum cui irascitur sit mortale peccatum Communites veniale esse Toletus affirmat De Escob Tract 2. Exam. 2. de peccatis n. 98. p. 304. If that indignation which is the cause that a man will neither see nor speak with him against whom he is angry be a mortal sin He answers that Tolet assures us That ordinarily this is but a venial sin The words of this Jesuit are of great weight with his Society because first of all he professes to advance nothing of his own and withall to borrow nothing of Authors that are strangers but only to report in every matter the opinion of the Doctors and Writers of the Society c Hoc ingenue profitear me nihil toto libello scripsisse quod Societatis Jesu non acceperim ex Doctore Quas enim proprias passim resolutiones innuo ex schola Societatis aperte deductas existimaverim De Escobar in Idaea operis in fine I sincerely declare saith he that I have written nothing in all this Book which I have not taken out of some Doctor
Deiparae in which there will be found very little if all that be thrown out which he hath invented himself It had need to be copied out in a manner whole and entire to make appear all the ridiculous and extravagant things that it contains and all the excesses and errours into which he is fallen pursuing his own thoughts and imaginations having not taken so much care to given the Verigin true praises as to produce new and extraordinary which even in this do dishonour her and cannot be pleasing to her Because the praises which are to be given to Saints as well as the honour which we are to render unto God himself ought not to be founded on any thing but truth I will onely rehearse some of the most considerable places of this Author He maintains confidently that Saint Anne and Saint Joachim were sanctified from the wombs of their Mothers and that there is more reason to attribute to them this priviledge then to Jeremy and Saint John Baptist He confesses d Nullus est proâ—me in asseâ—tione hac sed neque contra me cum non sit hacterus disputata Peza in Eâ—ucidarioâ— 2. tr 8. c. 3. p. 547. that there are no persons that are for him or against him in this proposition because none have spoken of it before himself If there be no Author for him they are all against him and the silence of the Saints and all the Doctors that were before him is a manifest condemnation of his presumption and of his rashness in so declaring himself an innovator in an unheard of novelty in the Church in a matter of Religion Molina hath done the same thing where he hath gloried to have invented the middle knowledge in the matter of Grace and of Predestination with such insolence that he is not affraid to say that if it had been known in the first ages of the Church the heresie of the Pelagians possibly had never risen Maldonat who is one of the Commentators on Scripture whom they esteem doth often declare himself the Author of new sences which he gives the Word of God against the consent even of the Fathers many times in his books we meet such expressions as these e 〈◊〉 habere Antorem qui na sâ—ntret ..... â—ames qur quot ligisse me memini â—…oâ—…s sic explicâ—nt ego autem alâ—…er sentio Malden I would find some Author who was of this opinion or all Authors whom I remember to have read expound this text in this manner but I expound it otherwise Which is a manifest contempt of the Council of Trent which forbids to expound Scripture against the consent of the Fathers and an imitation of the language of Calvin and other Hereticks renouncing the tradition of the Holy Fathers and all the antiquity of the Church If Escobar could have condemned this confidence of his Fraternity he would have condemned them onely of venial sin f Novas opinio nes novas vestes exponere vâ—nialis tantùm culpâ— est Escob â—r 2. exam 2. n. 10. p. 291. Qaia ejusmodi inventione quis gestit aliorum laudem captare Ibid. To introduce saith he rovel opinions and new sorts of habits into the Church is onely a venial sin He hath cause to talk of new opinions as of new fashions of Garments for in the new Divinity of the Jesuits who hold all things probable there needs no more reason to quit an ancient opinion then to change the fashion of apparel and if there be any ill in it it is very small and that too must come from some peculiar circumstance as from vanity or ambition Though this censure of Escobar be very gentle Molina and Maldonat as more ancient and more considerable in the Society then he will not submit thereunto and Poza is so far from acknowledging that there is any ill in inventing new opinions that he had a design in his Book not to produce therein any other then the inventions and imaginations of his own mind and for this reason in the entrance and preface he makes an Apology for novelty in which he hath forgotten nothing that he believed might be of use to make it recommendable and to give it admission as well into the Church as into the World imploying for this purpose authority examples and reasons He rehearses many passages out of Seneca saying g Patet omaibus veritas noadum est occupata qui â—nâ—e nos fueruut non domini sed duces fuerunt multum ex illa futuris relictum est Seneca Ep. 33. Dum unusquisque mavult credere quam judicare numquam de vita judicatur semper creditur that truth is open exposed to all the World that none have yet taken possession thereof that they who were before us were our guides but we are not therefore their slaves that there remains yet enough for those who come after us that every one liking better to believe then judge they are always content to believe and never judge at all how they ought to live And a little after h Non alligo me ad aliquem ex Stoicis proceribus est mihi censendi jus Itaque aliquem jubebo sententiam dividere de beata vita I addict not my self to any one in particular of these great Stoical Philosophers I have a right to judge them and to give my advice upon them This is the cause why some times I follow the opinion of one and sometimes I change something in the judgement of another It is clear that these passages go to establish a right for reason above authority which had been tolerable in an Heathen who had no other guide but Reason and who speaks of questions and things which cannot be regulated but by Reason But a Christian a Monk a man who interposes himself to write in the Church in matters of Faith for the instruction and edification of the faithful to make use of the maximes and terms of a Pagan to ruine the obedience of Faith and the tradition which is one of its principal foundations staving off the Faithful from the submission which they owe to the Word of God and the authority of the Holy Fathers is a thing unsufferable in the Church of God this is almost to turn it Pagan and to give every one a liberty to opine in matters of Religion as the Heathen Philosophers did in matters of science and morality wherein they followed their senses onely and proper thoughts He alledges also some passages of Catholick Authors as that same of Tertullian i Dominus noster Christus veritatem se non consuetudinem nominavit Tertull. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that he was the truth and not the custom And this other of Lactantius k Sapicntiam sibi adimuut qui sine ullo judicio invent a majorum probant ab aliis pecudum more ducuntur Sed hoc cos fallit quod majorum nomine posite non putant fieri posse ut ipsi plus
of the Laws more antient than they and they could not be condemned or defended when they as yet were not at all Thus Caramouel talks of the opinion of Amicus who holds that it is lawfull to kill a Defamer For enquiring e Anne eadem doctrina admiui poterit stando juri Civili Canonico Respondeo Amici doctrinam esse novam legibuâ— vulgat is juniorem atque adco nihil de illa à Pontificibus Caesaribus aut Regibus fuisse dispositum Caram p. 549. Whether this Doctrine may be received without offending against the Laws Civil and Ecclesiastick He answers That the Doctrine of Amicus is Novel and later than the Common Laws and consequently the l'opes Emperors and Kings have not spoken for it nor against it By this rule all new opinions which introduce errours and abuses shall be under shelter from the Laws of the Church which went before them though they be condemned therein They may be taught without punishment and followed with a good conscience 9. f Quidam Episcopus in Belgio interdixit Antonii Dianae resolutiones jussieque ut nemo venderet emeret legeret aut haberet Bibliopolae solliciti interrogabant posserne liber ille interdici Respondi ill is quod si illos condemnant hic jam haberent docti aliquid quod pâ—…tenter tolerare non possent Non enim libri damnari passants qui à doctu leguntur approbantur laudantur Caram p. 89. In hunc scopulum impegit quidam praecipue Antistes Sed quid faciemus aut dicamus homini incapaci doctrinae p. 393. Invidiae ignordanti condonaâ— p. 89. And if a Bishop seeing the evil consequences which they cause in this Diocess would censure and forbid the Books which teach them this Disciple of the Jesuits will make no difficulty to say that it belongs not unto him that if he attempt it he exceeds his power he will give occasion to persons who profess this Science to complain of him as doing a thing they cannot suffer because it is not lawfull for him to condemn Books which are read approved and commended by learned men But if after this the Bishop yield not to their remonstrances and complaints he shall not escape their reproaches and injuries and they will make him pass in their Schools and Books for an ignorant for an envious and stupid person and uncapable of being instructed and who by consequence deserves not to be spoken to nor to have pains taken with him to teach him what he understands not and so that without regarding his censures and his prohibitions they need not cease teaching and publishing the same opinions which he condemns 10. The Pope can have no more power over them in this than the Bishops as the Jesuits have testified many times causing the Books of F. Bauny and F. Rabardeau and others to be reprinted with approbation of their Superiors and of the principal Divines of the Society after they had been censured at Rome And indeed the reason wherefore they pretend that their Books and their Novel opinions cannot be condemned after they have had approbation by their Superiors and other able men of their Society is general and includes the Pope as well as the Bishops For they say g Non enim damnari possune libri qui à dectis leguntur approbantur landantur that it is not at all lawfull to condemn the Books which are read approved and praised by learned men 11. And since the Authority of the Churches Laws do not extend to new opinious which are come after them since neither the Bishops nor the Pope himself may for bid them it is necessarily required that all the Church be assembled in a body to judge of them in a Council And this also the Authors of this Probability pretend saying h Nulla ex praedict is synthesibus aliter potest sua probabilitate privari quam si contraria transeat in arti culum fidei Ibid. p. 89. Finge quemcunque casum possibilem praeter desinitionem Eeclesia That none of their Propositions can cease to be probable if the contrary become not an article of Faith whereupon they defie any man whomsoever to find another means to condemn a probable opinion than by an express definition of the Church For they hold that a single Casuist may introduce and authorize in the Church a probable opinion and that the Pope and all the Bishops cannot exclude it when it is once received and tolerated That the whole Church must speak to silence one single Regent of a Classis must make an Article of Faith to condemn a Probability 12. And yet after all this it is not known whether the Authors of this Science would submit to the definition of a Council For according to their maxims they are not obliged to it since the whole Church together no more than the Bishops and Pope apart can do that which in it self is impossible Now this is one of the maxims of these Doctors i Non enim damnari possunt libri aut opiniones quae à doctis approbantur laudantur That it is not lawfull to condemn opinions any more than Books which are approved and commended by learned persons or to speak yet more clearly k Cum impossibile sit probabilem condemnare senteniam impossibile eam non esse probabilem cui multi Doctores subscribunt Caram p. 393. As it is impossible that an opinion which hath the approbation of many Doctors should not be probable so it is impossible to reject it And this impossibility is universally acknowledged in all Philosophy and this is the first and the greatest of all impossibilities because it arises from the thing it self and from the proper definition of a probable opinion For l Opinion probabilis est quae à magnis multis defenditur Ibid. p. 89. a probable opinion is according as the Doctors of this Science define it that which many persons renowned for their learning do maintain so that if it have the approbation of many Doctors it is also impossible to hinder it from being probable and by consequence lawfull and safe in conscience as it is impossible to cause that they who have approved it should not have approved it or that they who were Doctors and many in number should not be many Doctors m Corgregentur universi Europaei docti indocti magui parvi non tamen poterunt facere aut vere definire viginti non esse viginti aut viros eximios summarum Aâ—…demiarum lumina non esse magnos Ibid. Assemble if you will saith Caramouel all the men of Europe learned and unlearned great and small they cannot make nor truly judge that 20 is not 20 or that excellent persons and the chief of the most famous Vniversities should not be excellent men which all the powers of the World cannot do nor the whole Church together to wit that 20 should not be 20 or Doctors
be no Doctors He explicates the same thing in another manner by a comparison which serves at once both to prove and clear his thoughts n Qui â—aim propositioni à multis viris doctis assertae ueget probabilitateâ— hiâ— negat lineae longitudinem supersicici latitudinem corport profund râ—tem hic negat desinitionem desinito competere Caram p. 393. For to deny saith he that an opinion which is maintained by many learned men is probable is to deny that a line hath length a superficies bredth and a body thickness or this is indeed to deny a proposition wherein the proper definition is attributed to its subject This is as much as to say that none whoever not excepting God himself can any more hinder that which two or three Doctors have asserted from being probable than make a line without length a superficies without bredth and a body without depth it being indeed in the power of God to destroy the being but not to change the nature of things and to cause that which is not to be but not to be different from what it is So that according to the principles of this new Divinity it is no more in the power of the Church nor of God himself to hinder that an opinion approved by two or three Casuists should be probable and by consequence lawfull and safe in conscience than to hinder that a man should be a reasonable creature Because that as to be a man and to be a reasonable creature is one and the same thing so to be a probable thing and to be approved by two or three Doctors are not different things according to them o Respendi si Dianae librns Episcopus ille interdixit ut merces viderint â—onsules Reipub. Patres ad quem pertineat interdicere merces si eofdem interdixit ut nocivos per accidens nullam injure im Dian it inâ—nlie sue full upus jure Neme enemin sus dome ten tur telerare librum etiam bondm quia suis sit perniciosâ—… per accidens Caram p. 89. But yet if the Church do censure any one of these opinions approved by these Doctors they will take this censure for a rule of policy or prudence by which sometimes good things are forbidden because they may be hurtfull by accident This is Caramouel's answer to one who advised with him concerning Books prohibited by a Bishop But if the Church pretend to condemn them as wicked they will oppose themselves thereto as to an unjust and unsufferable enterprise or rather wholly impossible and would say aloud p 〈…〉 condemnavâ—e hic jam habent docti aliquid quâ—d paâ—umter tolerare non possent non enim damnari possunt lib i aut opinion s qui à doctas leguator pp. 〈…〉 laudantâ—… Ibid. That it is not in the power of any one whosoever it be to condemn opinions no more then books which are approved and commended by learned men And after all when a Council assembled doth expresly condemn them they will not perhaps submit themselves to their judgement since they cannot condemn them more expresly than the Council of Trent hath condemned the Lutheran errours and yet notwithstanding this condemnation a Doctor of these Probabilities abstains not from making a Lutheran to say that his Sect and his Religion is probable without opposing him therein Cur non licebit â—arsanomeno dicere Romanâ—m quidâ—m Eccleuam esse prababilissimam atque adeo in soro intreno â—sse seemissimam Et tamen hoe ipso nonobstante Lutheronam quam ipse prefitus esse etiam probabilem atque aeque Christianam securam Imo securioâ—em omninâ— quoniam minus probabilis sententia si beniquior etiam securiâ—r est Sic discurret etiamum Barsanomenns deberet à lector erudiâ—e compesci Caram p. 472. On the contrary he testifies that he is not far from his opinion and that it is a consequence of the rules and principles of this Probability sending the Lutheran to those who hold the contrary to receive from them an answer unto his reasons as not finding therein any thing to answer and believing them to be solid and invincible because probable For this is the secret and scope of this Science to make all things probable that we may do and say what we will joyning unto Probability a certainty and kind of infallibility for ensuring this Science and the consciences of those who follow it in such manner that they are secure from the fear of Gods Judgements the Authority of the Church and the censure of all the men in the World ARTICLE III. That the Divinity of the Jesuits is obsequious and mercenary IT will appear sufficiently that the Divinity of the Jesuits is wholly complacent of it self in that it is proper to give content to the whole World and they can following their principles quiet all sorts of consciences in satisfying the desires of all sorts of persons And in this it is servile and mercenary because there is no servitude more base than to flatter the passions of others and so much the more because this is not done but because such are slaves to their own proper lusts This is clear by what I have produced out of their Books in the former Chapter and it is a consequence so evident and necessary from their principles that I might forbear to prove it more particularly Notwithstanding it will not be unprofitable herein yet to produce some more examples which may serve to give greater light and greater clearness to the most simple and incredulous Escobar enquires q Petit consulens aut poenitens sibi exprimi quae sit sententia probabilior Escob in precemio exam 3. cap. 6. num 24. p. 28. What must be said to a penitent or other man who demands which of two opinions is more probable He answers that he to whom this person addresses himself ought to tell him that which he esteems more probable in his conscience supposing he demands to know that which is most probable in it self and in the Theory r Quod si solum ex practica obligatioue sciscitatur potest consuâ—ere quod minus probabilâ— judicat Imo mâ—iorem se geret consiliarium saepe id consulens quod facilius cum minori periculo â—…u incommodo praestart pâ—tesâ— Ibid. But if he desires only to know what he ought to do in the practice we may advise him to do that which is less probable and we shall oftentimes do him better service by advising him to that which is more easie and which he may do with less danger and inconvenience Greater obsequiousness cannot be desired since this goes beyond the thought of the man who demanded the best advice For instead of counselling him that which is absolutely best according to his demand this Author would have us counsel him that which is less probable provided it be more easie and agreeable to his humour And to remove from his Director the scruple
Princes over their Divines and their Books of the Society than to the Authors of these Books or their Superiors Others saith he to whom opposition is made write either at Rome by the commandment of the Pope or in other Countries at the instance of Foreign severe Princes who carry things at their pleasure with a high hand so that it comes to pass oftentimes that they have no more power over their Books than over the Winds or Stars So the Books of the Jesuits fall sometimes into the hands of certain of their easie Fathers who let them pass easily and their Authors whatsoever they advance otherwhiles they fall into the violent hands of Foreign Princes who do what they please with the same Books and Authors so that the Superiors have no more power over them than over the Winds or Stars It must needs be that the Spirit and Divinity of the Jesuits is very manageable very pliant and very obsequious that they may make of it whatsoever they will or rather whatsoever the Princes and Grandees of the World would have After this confession they have made themselves we may say that they are very near the estate which the Jews were in when the Prophet objected unto them o Princeps postulat Judex in reddendo est magnus locutus est desiderium animae suae conturbaverunt cam Micheae 7. v. 3. The Priuce demands what he pleases and the Judge speedily grants it him and the mighty man doth only declare his desire and they trouble and intangle his conscience heartning him in wicked designs by false reasons instead of opposing or redressing and regulating them by the Law of God and maxims of the Gospel This is to acknowledge and declare himself a slave in an abject manner to violent powers and strangers as this Jesuit talks to say as he doth speaking for the whole Society that they carry things with a high hand as they list against them and their Divines and this slavery is yet in this more shamefull and less excusable because it is voluntary since many times they stay not till they be sought out and urged but they present themselves and offer their pens and their Divinity which by rendring every thing probable is capable to maintain and overturn whatsoever they please and they must engage themselves in a strange manner and enter into an extraordinary vassallage since they declare that after they have so addicted themselves to the Grandees of the World and have devoted unto them their Spirits and Learning that their Superiors have no more power over their Books which they compose and which they cause to be printed than over the Winds and Stars who receive their motions not from Celestial intelligences but from Terrestrial and Temporal powers It is easie to judge by this what their fidelity may be and what reason there is to confide in their Discourse and Divinity so fickle and voluntary not only for private persons but also for Princes since being thus for all they are for none and abandoning truth so easily they will yet more easily for sake men according as their interests shall require them ARTICLE IV. That the Jesuits Divinity is subject to contradictione and change in opinions THey that are not at all informed of the maxims of the Jesuits wonder when they hear say that they are so little constant and faithfull in their words and in their actions others who have some knowledge of their opinions report that ordinarily the cause of this proceeds from the Doctrine of equivocations of which they make profession But those who know them better give thereof a reason more clear and more easie drawn from the principles of their Divinity For there is no need to have recourse to equivocations to deceive if we believe we may lye with a good conscience and it seems foolish to rack ones wits to find a word with double sense to cover and disguise his thought if he be perswaded that it is lawfull to speak and do quite contrary to what he thinks and to quit his own opinion to follow that of another when he finds it more favourable for him keeping still the liberty to resume his own and to follow it when he shall have occasion for it and so to pass from the one to the other giving unto the same difficulties contrary advices and resolves following his own humour or complying with theirs who demand his counsel These are the certain maxims of the Jesuits Divinity as I have made appear above after which it ought not be thought strange that they are so inconstant in all their wayes that they believe they may affirm and deny approve and condemn the same things and that we see nothing but disguises and contradictions in their words and carriages One of their most ordinary contradictions is to acknowledge Truths in their general Propositions and to destroy them in the particulars and practice This may be seen clearly in F. Bauny in many places of his Books as in his Summe c. 3. p. 49. where speaking of Penance he agrees that if we look for heaven and eternal life without first doing penance for our sins it is mortal sin And in the 43. ch and 69. p. he declares that pardon of sin and correction are two things inseparable and that the one is not given but after the other Non datur venia nisi correcto And in the 38. ch p. 589. speaking of a Consessor and of the cognisance he ought to have of the disposition of a penitent In truth saith he as he holds the place of a Judge in the Sacrament as saith the Council in the 14. session and 9. ch he cannot nor ought pass sentence but on what he hath a full and perfect cognisance of And in the following page he cites the C. Omnis utriusque sexus where the Confessor is spoken of in these terms a Debet diligenter inquirere peccatoris circumstantias peccati quibus prudenter intelligat quale debeat ei praebere consilium cujusmodi remedium adhibere diversis experimentis utendo ad sanandum aegrotum He ought carefully inform himself of the circumstances which respect the sinner as well as which respect his sin that he may judge prudently what counsel he ought to give him and what remedy he ought to prescribe him making use of sundry experiments to cure his disease And in his Practique book 1. chap. 14. pag. 121. speaking of the principal things whereof a Bishop ought to inform himself in making a Visitation in his Diocess he observes this same which is taken out of the second Council of Remes under Charlemain and Leo 3. in the 16. ch That they should observe b Quinto quomodo confitentium peccata dijudicant tempus poenitentiae constistuunt how the Confessors judged of the sins of the penitents and what time of penance they prescribed them The other Jesuits acknowledge with him the same maxims as the fundamental
committing it and the Maxims of the World and of corrupted Reason which authorize and justifie it We come now to behold how they oppose and as far as may be overthrow all the Remedies thereof whether they be inward which destroy it in the Soul when it hath committed it and which hinder from committing it as the Grace of Jesus Christ Penitence the Sacraments and good Works or outward which of themselves make only a Discovery thereof as the holy Scripture and the Commandments of God and the Church which may also hinder us from committing them outwardly by restraining and binding Concupiscence in some sort by the threatnings and punishments appointed by God against Sinners According to this Division this Book shall have two Parts the one shall be of the inward Remedies and the other of the outward CHAPTER I. Of the Grace of Jesus Christ ARTICLE I. That the Jesuits destroy the Grace of Jesus Christ by their Divinity I Shall be so much the shorter in this Chapter as the Subject thereof is more large and boundless it being most true that the Doctrine of Christian Manners depends on the Grace of Jesus Christ and refers unto it as its Principle as S. Austin saith that the whole Scripture is nothing but Charity and relates thereto as its end I will not enter upon the Disputes which they have raised above these sixty years upon this Subject troubling the Church with their Intrigues and by their passion in maintaining the Novelties which they acknowledge and boast they have invented My mind and my design too do equally estrange me from it I shall only as I pass by them touch upon some points which do more visibly testifie that their Divinity and their Carriage are entirely opposite to the Grace of Jesus Christ and the Gospel The Grace of God is given us either to do good or to defend us from sin and withdraw us from it when we are fallen thereinto 1. To fight against the Love of God is to fight against the Grace of God which causeth us to do good for that good is not done but voluntarily and by love not by the love of the world nor of our selves which is always vicious but by that of God which is the spring of all the good which we receive and do Father Ant. Sirmond Molina and other Jesuits maintain some That we satisfie the love we owe unto God by loving him three or four times in our life and others That we may pass over our whole life without any thought of loving him and be saved after all this as I shall make appear in handling the command of loving God 2. This is to fight with the Grace of God that withdraws us from sin to teach that he who is fallen into sin is not obliged to ask grace of God or to seek out means to rise again from it with speed nor even to accept them when presented and offered Yet this is afferted by Amicus Escobar and Celot and 1 Qui animae confessionis praeceptopostquam satisfecit in peccatum letale praecipitatus est si conscientiae stimulos ad Sacramentum poenitentiae extra ordinem urgentis quod confilium est neglectu retundit hebetat eoque in statu decedit è vita ignis sempiterni praeda fiet non quod omissa confessione peccatum contraxerit sed quod alterius peccati reum mere invenerit In refundendis communibus illis consiliorum moribus id tantum Christiano perit meriti quod opere consulto acquisivisset solo minor apud Deum quod major esse noluit Fateer sane in hujusmodi acceptatione usuque confilii salutis cardinem non rarò versari quo tempore dicas oportet gravissimo se obstringere peccato ego nullum praecise agnosco Celot t. 9. c. 7. Sect. 7. p. 816. this last expounding himself more clearly then the rest proceeds so far as to say that when God himself first seeks him out that hath offended him and endeavours to draw and cause him to return unto him by preventing and stirring him up by inspirations and good motions which he bestows on him he may resuse them without rendring himself guilty of any sin though he believe that his eternal Salvation depends on these good thoughts and good apprehensions which he so insolently rejects 3. This is also to fight against or destroy that very Grace which withdraws us from sin to pretend that a sinner may re-enter into a state of Grace and dispose himself to receive it by the Sacrament of Penance which is particularly instituted to that end by means of dispositions and actions altogether natural which come not from Grace which only can prepare her self a seat and subject and dispose the heart of man to receive it And for all that the principal Divines of the Society are of this opinion as Escobar teacheth us who pretends to be but the Interpreter as we shall see in the Chapter of Penitence 4. This is finally all at once to combat both these sorts of Graces whereof one causeth us to do good and the other withdraweth us from evil and to oppose them in a manner injurious unto Jesus Christ who is the Author of all Grace and to the Law of the New Testament which God hath made choice of to give his Grace abundantly unto men to pretend that Christians under this new Law are less obliged to love God and to be sorry for their sins with all their heart and above all things than the Jews under the old Law as 1 Ante legem gratiae antequam magna Dei misericordia in ea instituerentur Sa. cramenta quae attritos justificarent illisque vi Sacramentorum conferretur charitas supernaturalis sicut sine Sacramentis confertur contritis sane longè frequentius sub letali culpa tenebantur homines Deum ex charitate naturali diligere quà m Christiani in nova lege dum ex charitate supernaturali diligere teneantur Molina tom 6. de just jure tr 5. disp 59. p. 3166. Molina and 2 Hoc autem praeceptum contritionis lege Evangelica commutatum est in praeceptum confessionis Amicus tom 8. dis 9. sect 3. n. 68. p. 96. Amicus teach as though we owed less unto God then the Jews since we receive more from him and that we were dispensed with for loving him as much as they because he loves us more than them or that the excess of his mercies towards us and the excellent means which he hath given us to convert us ought to make us less sensible of the sins we commit against him and to cause in us less displeasure against them I note only these four points as I pass to make it appear how the Jesuits Divinity overthrows the foundations of the Grace of Jesus Christ because I shall speak thereof more largely afterwards when I come to handle these points in particular and I will insist at present only upon some passages which are more formal
which he places these 1 Datur non datur recipiendae Consiâ—mationis praeceptum divinum Whether there be a Divine Precept to receive Confirmation where having reported the two contrary Opinions he tells his own in these terms 2 Existimo nullum dari nec divinum nec Ecclesiasticum praeceptum Confirmationis recipiendae Escob tom 2. lib. 12. Pr 31. I believe there is no Precept neither Divine nor Ecclesiastick to receive Confirmation And as if it had not been sufficient to have said it once he repeats it the second time also confirming his errour After which he proposes this other Problem 3 Datur non datur ullum recipiendae confi mationis praeceptum Probl. 32. Whether it be a Venial sin to fail of receiving Confirmation He concludes that 4 Omittere Confirmationem peccatum vaniale est neque peccatum est veniale Probl. 33. Except in the case of scandal or contempt it is not of it self any scandal to omit it He contents not himself with this neither but that he might have occasion to repeat this scandalous Proposition he makes this other question 5 Sub veniall fideles tenentur nec sub veniali tenentur ante Sacramenti Eucharistiae matrimonil susceptionem Confirmationem recipere Probl. 34. Whether the faithful are obliged under the pain of Venial sin to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation before that of the Eucharist or of Marriage And he answers that they are not at all obliged In his other work wherein he hath collected the Opinions of the 24 Elders who represent the Society he demands 6 Quaenam suscipiendi obligatio Non est necessarium necessitate medil neque necessitate praecepti Escob tr 7. ex 3. n. 3. n. 11. p. 794. What Obligation have we to receive Confirmation and he answers that there is none that comes either from any Commandment or from any necessity of this Sacrament it self He generally takes away all sort of obligation and necessity from this Sacrament reducing it into the rank of things free and indifferent And to testifie this yet more he adds that one may without sin at least without any great one have a formal will not to receive it at all sponte omittere provided it be without scandal and contempt As if it were not enough to despise so great a gift of God as that of this Sacrament to refuse it voluntarily without cause There is no King nor Man of quality who would not hold it for a contempt to refuse in this manner any gift though much smaller especially if he offer it to some person of low condition who should shew so little regard of the honour he doth him Mascarenhas who wrote after the rest follows in this point the opinion of his Brethren and speaks also more clearly and resolutely then they supposing himself to be fortified by their Examples and supported by their Authority 7 Omittere hoc Sacramentum absolutè loquendo nec etiam pâ—ccatum veniale est Et ratio est quia nullum de hodatur praecepc tum de jure communâ— nullum datur peccatum nec veniale nisi siâ— contra aliquod praeceptum Mascarenhas tr 1. de Sacram. in genere disp 4. c. 5. p. 47. There is not absolutely saith he any sin no not a Venial one in neglecting to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation because amongst the common Laws of Christian Religion there is none that commands it and it cannot be any sin no not a Venial one which is not against some Commandment He acknowledgeth neither obligation nor precept nor any sort of necessity for receiving Confirmation which is hard to reconcile with the Faith we ought to have in this Divine Sacrament which contains so great an abundance of Grace and fulness of the Holy Ghost For if one should say that he might withdraw himself from it through honour and respect not esteeming himself worthy of so great a gift and bounty of God he would therein testifie at the least some esteem for this Sacrament of the Holy Ghost But to maintain that one may withdraw from it of his own will only and without any reason and without troubling himself about the Graces and Blessings which he might receive therefrom is to testifie manifestly that we make no great account of it and that we would reduce it to the rank of things indifferent And how can men be diverted from it more openly then by making them believe that they may overlook it and neglect even the occasions that are convenient for receiving it without making themselves guilty before God of the least sin But because this wicked Doctrine is entirely opposite to the consent of the Holy Fathers and Councils who acknowledge the necessity of Confirmation the Jesuits have found out a new invention to defeat their Authority herein They answer that the 8 Pontifices Concilin in contrarium adducta loquuntur de necessitate non praeceptl sed utilitatis Escobar supra n. 22. p. 796. Popes and Councils which are alledged against their Opinion speak not of a necessity of command but of a necessity of benefit There is no Commandment so express nor so clearly expressed neither in the Scripture nor in the Books of the Church which may not be cluded by this new unheard of and ridiculous Distinction For hitherto none ever spoke of a necessity of benefit it being clear that what is only beneficial as is Confirmation with the Jesuits is not necessary and that to joyn in this manner a necessity to utility or an utility to necessity is to form a kind of Monster composed of two contrary parts whereof the one destroys the other According to this distinction we may say that whatsoever is in the Church and in the Scripture is necessary because there is nothing there which is not profitable and all the most free Counsels themselves being profitable may be said to be necessary But to shew yet more clearly that this necessity of utility is but a vain word which they have invented to obscure the light of the Ancient Doctrine of the Church it is manifest that according to them it is impossible there should be any true necessity of any kind for the Sacrament of Confirmation since they hold that it is not commanded by any law of God or the Church and that the Grace which it confers may be obtained not only by other Sacraments but also by every sort of good works and exercises of Religion as appears by the Books of English Jesuits condemned by the Clergy of France and since publickly owned by the Jesuits in the Book of Alegambe approved by their General Escâ—bar also expounds his thought more openly demanding 1 Qui data copis recipiendi hec Sacramentum quam postea non facile est habiturus nen recipit deliquitne ut contemptor Minime Ib. n. 23. If he who hath convenience to receive this Sacrament which he cannot easily another time obtain
contradict and clude this last and dreadful sentence than by correcting his errour to submit himself thereunto for he is not ashamed to say that the reason which Jesus Christ alledges and whereupon he grounds his judgment is not true and takes not place in the matter wherein he alledges it that is to say in the last Judgment It is not to purpose 1 Nec refert quod Dominus Matth. 25. formam judicii describens meminerit potius operum misericordiae quam aliorum Id enim fecit ut homines praesertim plebeios qui ad majora spiritualia parum sunt comparati in hec vita ad ea excitaret haec autem ratio cessat in extremo judicio quia tunc homines non erunt amplius ad optra misericordiae exciâ—tandi Lessim de perfect divin lib. 13. tract 22. pag. 142. saith he to alledge that our Lord in the 25. of S. Matthew representing unto us the form of the last Judgment speaks of the works of mercy rather than others For he doth it only to stir up men and especially the common people who are not capable of comprehending spiritual things to exercise these works in this life Now this reason cannot take place at the last Judgment because then there will be no need to excite men unto works of mercy I will not stay here to examine this excess which will appear strange enough of it self to them who are not void of the common resentments of Christianity because it will be more proper to do it elsewhere We will only observe in this place that one Jesuit hath undertaken to fight and destroy Gods first Commandment and another his last Judgment They who can have the patience to behold a multitude of Expositions of Scripture Councils and Holy Fathers false extravagant unheard of and many times impious need only read Poza's Book which he entituled Elucidarium Deiparae A Volume as big as his would be needful to represent all his excesses I have related some of them in the Chapter of Novelty and elsewhere which I repeat not here to avoid tediousness Father Adam hath surpassed all his Brethren in the same excess For he destroys not only the letter and the sense of Scripture he fights with the Authors themselves whom God hath made use of to impart them to us He decrys them and deprives them of all that authority and credit which is due unto sacred Writers and who were no other than the hand and tongue of the Holy Ghost by attributing unto them weaknesses and extravagancies and affirming by an horrible impiety that following their own imaginations and passions they are sometimes transported beyond truth and have written things otherwise than they were and that they did neither conceive nor believe them themselves in their consciences It will not easily be imagined that this conceit could ever come into the mind of a Monk I will not say but of a Christian who had not entirely renounced the Faith and Church if this Father had not written it in manifest terms and more forcibly than I can represent it in a Book whereto he gives this Title Calvin defeated by himself In the third Part of this Book Chap. 7. he saith That it is not only in criminal matters that zeal and hate inflame a Soul and transport it unto excest and violence but that the Saints themselves acknowledge that they are not exempt from this infirmity And flagrant passions sometimes push them on to actions so strange and ways of expressing themselves so far removed from truth that those who have written their lives have called them holy extravagancies innocent errours and Hyperboles more elevated than their apprehensions and which expressed more than they intended to say He adds also in the same Chapter and in the progress of the same discourse That this infirmity is not so criminal but that God did tolerate it in the person of those Authors whom he inspired and whom we call Canonical whom he left to the sway of their own judgments and the temper of their own spirits He compares the Saints and Fathers of the Church to persons full of passions and violence he excepts not the Canonical Authors themselves and he makes them all subject to the same infirmities and the Canonical Authors also to the greater and more inexcusable For if they be vicious in others they are yet more in these in whom the least faults and the least removes from the truth which in ordinary persons were but marks of infirmity would be as notorious and criminal as the greatest because they would be imputed unto God whose words the Canonical Authors have only rehearsed and it is as unworthy of God contrary to his nature and power to depart a little as much from the truth It is therefore manifest that what this Jesuit saith tends directly to destroy all Holy Scripture Faith and Religion For if the Canonical Writers could exceed and depart a little from the truth in one single point they were subject to do it in all the rest So their discourse is not of divine Authority neither are their Books the Books or Word of God because God is always equally infallible and can never go beyond or depart from the truth in the least whether he speaks himself or by the mouth of his Prophets CHAPTER II. Of the Commandments of God ARTICLE I. Of the first Commandment which is that of Love and Charity THis first Commandment of Love contains in it and requires of us three things to wit that we love God above all Creatures our selves for God and our neighbour as our selves These three coming from one and the same trunk and root shall make three Articles of this Chapter and I will handle all three severally that I may more distinctly represent the Jesuits opinions upon every obligation of the first Commandment and to make it evidently appear that they destroy it in every part I. POINT Of the Command to love God I will relate nothing here save only from Father Anthony Sirmond because he seems particularly to have undertaken to destroy this Precept and because he hath said upon this Subject alone all that may be found in the worst Books of his Fraternity 1. That he abolishes the Command of loving God and reduces it to a simple counsel 2. That according to him the Scripture hardly speaks at all of divine Love and Charity and that our Lord hath very little recommended it 3. That he declares that the love of God may very well consist and agree with the love of our selves 4. And that it is nothing else but self-love SECTION I. That there is no Command to love God according to the Maxims of the Jesuits Divinity OUr Lord speaking of the double Commandment of Love saith That all the Law and the Prophets do depend thereon In his duobus mandatis universa lex pendet Prophetae Matth. 22. He saith not that the command to love God doth depend on and is
imprinted and taught publickly is thought to sweeten its Laws and to moderate them according to these Explications As if the Church approved all things it tolerates or which comes not to its knowledge A new Inquisition altogether extraordinary would need to be established to examine all the Errours which are in the new Books And because the Pastors of the Church dissemble them sometimes and suffer them with sorrow and groaning feeing at present neither means nor disposition to correct or repress them it is to do them great wrong and to abuse unjustly their patience and forbearance to draw from thence advantage to deceive the world and to make the Commonalty and simple people believe that the Bishops approve by their silence all that they condemn not openly though they frequently lament it before God See here how errours and abuses slide into the Church and establish themselves therein by little and little they that have introduced them pretending at last to make them pass for Laws and Rules of the Church Bauny in his Sum cap. 27. pag. 181. proposes also this question Whether it be satisfactory to the Precept of hearing Mass to hear one part of it of one Priest and another of a second different from the first He quotes Emanuel Sa and others who hold the affirmative and approving this opinion he adds I hold it for true for that hearing it in that manner that is done which the Church would have For it is true to say that he who hears of one Priest saying the Mass after he is entred into the Church that which follows the Consecration unto the end and of a second who succeeds the first that which goes before the Consecration hath heard all the Mass since he hath been found present indeed at all its parts He stays not here He saith moreover that we may not only hear the Mass in this manner in parts at twice when two Priests say it in course and successively without interruption but also at thrice or four times and more with interruption and at as great a distance of time as we will And because he saw that this opinion might be ill received because of its novelty he would make it passable under the name of Azor that we might not believe that he invented it himself It is demanded saith he if this ought to be done in an uninterrupted succession and without intermission of time Azor p. 1. lib. 7. cap. 3. q. 3. answers no and that dividing it we may at divers times attend unto so many parts of the Mass as may make up one entire Mass That is to say that we may hear it of so many different Priests as there are parts in the Mass provided that what we have heard of every one apart being joyned together contain all that is said in a Mass and though the Priests say these Masses at far distant times and Altars we fail not by hearing them in this manner to satisfie the Commandment of the Church and to have truly heard an entire Mass composed of parts so different and incoherent It were better to oppose the Commandment of the Church openly than to make sport with it in so ridiculous a manner and with so strange a liberty which can be good for nothing but to make the Mass and all Religion contemptible to Hereticks and Atheists In the mean time this goodly reason which suffices to fulfil the Precept of the Church by attending at all parts of the Mass in what manner soever we hear them whether it be in a continued succession and at once or by many parts and at divers times hath brought things to such a pass that some exceed so far as to say that entring into a Church where we find two Priests at two Altars whereof the one hath newly begun his Mass and the other is at the middle of his if we attend at once to the one from the beginning unto the middle and to the other from the middle unto the end we shall thereby discharge our duty of hearing Mass Bauny cites for this opinion Azor and some others and Azor speaks in these terms If that be true which the second opinion affirms I see nothing to hinder but he may fulfil the Precept who entring into a Church hears the Mass in two parts of two several Priests who say it at the same time For as for attention he may lend it to them both at once For this cause I approve this opinion not because it is grounded on a sufficiently forcible reason but because it is supported by the Authority of considerable persons He acknowledges that this opinion is ridiculous in it self and contrary to the Commandments of the Church and the respect which is due unto the Mass and is also without reason and solid foundation and for all that he forbears not to approve it for fear of disobliging and reproaching those who maintain it to whose Authority he chuses rather to submit his Judgment than to that of the Church and Reason Coninck saith the same thing and he approves also this opinion as the more probable though he follows it not being restrained by this single consideration 2 Quia Doctores non â—odem modo asserunt hunc satisfacere sicut priorem Coninck supra That the Doctors do not assure us that this latter doth fulfil the Precept as well as they do for the former Here it is remarkable what submission and respect these Casuists have for one another which proceed so far as to make them renounce reason and truth rather than to separate from and contradict one anothers opinions if it be not rather some combination in a faction or private interest that obliges them thereunto They give themselves the liberty to reject the holy Fathers and to prefer their proper imaginations and new opinions before the ancient Doctrine of those Great Masters of Divinity as we have observed on many occasions and they are very tender of departing from the opinions of the Causists of these times though they doubt that they are far off from reason and truth establishing by this means the Casuists as Judges and Masters of truth and their novel opinions as the Law and Rule of Manners and Religion Tolet treating of this subject speaks thus 3 Aliqui volunt quod si quis mediam Misâ—am audireâ— ab uno Sacerdote reliquum ab alio quod satisfactret praecepto Nam Miffam integram audirer mihi videtur probabile Tolet. Instit Saterd lib. 6. cap. 7. num 8. pag. 1030. There are some who say that if one hear the half of a Mass of one Priest and the rest of another he doth thereby satisfie the Precept us well as if he had heard the whole Mass entire And this seems probable unto me Escobar takes it for granted as certain and general that it is lawful to hear the Mass in parts of divers Priests and afterwards he makes a person that advises with him to talk
attention to the Mass as to their work which is sufficient according to these Divines They go so far as to say that when discourses made during the Mass are wicked and dishonest they hinder not but that the Precept of hearing may be fulfilled This is that 2 Quo pacto explicandus est Soto disp 13. q. 2.2.1 sin cum dicit eisi colloquia sint de rebus indecentibus tamen impleri Ibid. num 216. Filliutius saith expounding Soto whom he will have to be of this opinion and Bauny would come to agreement with them very easily upon this point since he saith in his Sum Chap. 18. pag. 176. That he thinks they are not blame-worthy who hold that Prebends and Canons discharge their duty who assisting in the Quire during holy Service pass their time in scandalous discourses and in an employment altogether vicious as in laughing scoffing c. Escobar concludes this point by reducing it to the uttermost extremity when he demands 3 Audit quis Sicrum animo non satisfaciendi praecepto satisfacitne Ita plane ex Vasquez assertione Escobar tract 1. exam 11. num 107. pag. 193. Whether he that hears the Mass with a design not to fulfil do fulfil the Precept He answers That he certainly fulfils it according to Vasquez 's opinion Sanchez saith the same And that it might appear less odious he draws it by consequence from another Principle which is yet more strange 1 Vere implet audiendi Sacri praeceptum illud ex contemptu audiendo ergo à fortiori cum intentione non satislaciendi Sanch. oper.mor l. 1. c. 3. n. 13. pag. 64. He saith he who hears the Mass of contempt accomplisheth the Precept truly And with much stronger reason he that hears with an intention not to satisfie He would have us believe that we may do the will of the Church doing it expresly against our intention and that we may obey it by a wilful rebellion and honour it by an affected contempt hearing the Mass with a resolution not to satisfie it in what it desires and with a formal contempt of its Command It seems impossible to advance farther in this matter than to say that we accomplish a Precept by an action that we do in contempt of it and with an intention not to satisfie it But Tambourin goes yet farther For he finds means not to transgress this Precept not only with an intention not to accomplish it but even in not doing outwardly that which is commanded though it might be done if we would 2 Potest quis licite in aliquem locum distantem ab Ecclesia discedere in quo praevidet non posse die festivo Missam audire tempore à die festo remoto etiam eo fine ne audiat seu ne tenâ—atur audire Sacrum Tamâ—ur l. 4. decal c. 2. sect 3. n. 6. We may saith he lawfully retire some days before a Feast unto some place distant from the Church where we foresee that we might hear a Mass on a Feast-day though we do it with a design of not hearing or of not being obliged to hear This is a Paradox greater than those of the Stoicks that we may obey by disobedience honour by dishonouring and discharge our duty to God and the Church by sins and crimes contrary to the Ordinances of God and the Church And there remains nothing more for these Doctors to say but that crimes and sins are good actions since they may serve according to them to the accomplishment of the Commandments of God and the Church since God and the Church cannot command other than good actions And this is that which Celot seems to pretend when he tmaintains that he who hears the Mass out of vain-glory doth a good work This is in his 9. Book and 7. Chapter where he encounters with Peter Seguenot and reproves him for having said that though we cannot accomplish as we ought the Commandments of God and the Church without the assistance of Grace yet we may by the force of Nature only and without Grace do all the outward actions that are commanded And to oppose himself unto him more directly he speaks in these terms 3 Ego contra disputo lithali peccato irretitum hominem qul publicae metu insainiae templum Missam ex praecepto Festa die celebrat id ipsum licet imperfectum opus praeveniente comitanteque gratia facere neque obedientiam Ecclesiae debitam infringere Gelot lib. 9. cap. 7. pag. 813. I maintain on the contrary that a man who is in an estate of mortal sin going to Church and Mass on a Feast-day which is the Commandment for fear of losing his reputation though his work be imperfect ceases not to act by Grace preventing and accompanying him and that he offends not against the obedience he owes to the Church This action is out of vain-glory and notwithstanding it must be good and holy if it be done by the motion of preventing and accompanying Grace as he supposes or indeed he must say that a sin must proceed of Grace as of its Principle and that Grace may cause us to sin which were Blasphemy or rather a folly greater than theirs who have said that God is the Author of sin For they have not said that he causes us to sin in giving us Grace but rather in refusing to give it and pushing us on unto sin not by his Grace but by his Power Also Celot affirms 4 Cui veniâ— in mentem dicere nos Christi gratia ad id impelli quod fit cum peccaâ—o Ibid. pag. 815. That it never came into the thoughts of any man to imagine that the Grace of Jesus Christ could press us on to any action which were sin He declares then that he who hears the Mass in mortal sin out of vain-glory or for worldly honour alone doth it by the motion of the Grace of Jesus Christ and by consequence that his action is good and that in this quality it sufficeth to accomplish the Commandment to hear Mass on Feast-days This Jesuit pretends that all those who observe any Commandment outwardly as the Jews and yet in worse manner than the Jews doing it by a wicked motive cease not to have the Grace of Jesus Christ to act by his motion and to do thereupon good works though they be not perfect that is to say though the good motive which is to them as the Soul and form and which should give them perfection be wanting and on the contrary though they be done by a wicked and criminal motive so that they be in themselves true sins and crimes covered with an appearance of good external actions And so according to this Doctor sins and crimes shall be good works proper to content God and to satisfie his Commandments and those of the Church ARTICLE II. Of Fasting and the Commandment to Fast FAsting in the Church consists in abstinence from certain victuals which it hath forbidden
with joy and those who shall adhere to them through passion or interest may be brought to testifie the horrour they have conceived against them by the renunciation which they shall make of them or at least by the silence they shall keep and wherein they shall bury them so as neither to hold nor teach them any more for the future But if they shall not draw hence the fruit which is desired and they persist both the one and the other to maintain the same Maxims they testifie openly hereby that they also admit all the consequences whereof they cannot be ignorant any longer And by consequence they shall make themselves responsible for all the consequences and all the unhappy effects which are therefrom inseparable And if after all this they make an out-cry in the world and hold themselves offended when such disorders are imputed to them and when they are declared the Authors and Cherishers of these Irregularities of Corruption of Libertinism which are spread over all conditions in these last times they cannot attribute it to any other than themselves because they are reproached with nothing but what they have avowed themselves in that they would not disavow it after it hath been represented unto them and they have been condemned by the Church The Faithful shall at least draw hence this advantage that they may hereby discover the false Prophets and false Pastors from the good and true ones and take heed of those who under a pretence of piety do corrupt piety it self seducing simple and innocent Souls so far as to endeavour to hale them out of the bosom of their true and lawful Pastors and to turn them away from their conduct and engage them in horrible precipices Reasons wherefore we take the Morals of the Jesuits for the Subject of this Book rather than those of other Casuists THat I produce in this Work no other Authors than those of the Society of the Jesuits is not through any passion towards them or toward others For though I speak not of other Casuists yet do I not neglect them entirely as neither do I approve them nor excuse them in their opinions which they have common with the Jesuits and which are conformable to those which I reprove But as he who would cut down a Tree amuses not himself in cutting off the branches one after another but betakes himself to its body and root which being cut the branches must necessarily fall and so I believe that destroying the pernicious Doctrine of the Jesuits touching Manners and Cases of Conscience I overturn all at once whatsoever there is conformable unto it amongst the new Casuists because they are in a manner all their Disciples having learned that which they say in their Schools or in their Books After all this the Jesuits declare themselves the Masters of this sort of new Learning and they give this name to their principal Authors whom they would have pass for the Doctors and Masters of the whole World And they would even that they might assure themselves of the possession of these Titles eject the holy Fathers therefrom endeavouring to hinder men from hearing them from following them and from imitating the example and holiness of their lives by this pernicious Maxime which they have invented and established as a Principle of their Divinity that it is not the ancient Fathers but the new Divines and Casuists of these times who must be taken for the Rule of Manners and Christian life It is with the same Spirit that did testifie so great an esteem for Novelty they profess to follow it and many amongst them as Posa Celot have taken in hand to defend it to praise it and to make Apologies for it Quae circa fidem emergunt difficultates consons veteribus sancienda quae vero circa mores homine Christiano dignos à novetiis scriptoribus Reginald Praesat ad lect And hereby without doubt they designed to make the presumption pass for current that they borrowed nothing at all from others and especially nothing from the Ancients but that they produced their Opinions themselves and found them in their own heads and that they have no other Rule for their conduct and their knowledge but their own sense and humane reason and not the Authority of the Saints and that being as it were Independents they ought not to pass for Children of the Fathers and for Disciples of the holy Doctors but Masters of Novelties amongst the Authors of these times But although they think hereby to exalt their Doctrine and to acquire more honour unto it they disgrace and ruine it themselves in effect because that Novelty hath always been blamed as a mark of Errour not only by the Catholicks but also by the Hereticks who have always affected and attempted to make people believe that their Doctrine as well as their Religion were ancient so that there were never any found who would suffer themselves to be reproached much less who would boast themselves to advance new Maxims as is to be seen in the Example of the Lutherans and Calvinists who vaunt themselves though falsly to follow the Doctrine of the ancient Church and of the Disciples of Jesus Christ and hold it for a great injury to be called Innovators though indeed they be such The Jesuits on the contrary seem to affect this odious Title since they despising the Authority of the holy Fathers and renouncing the Doctrine of the Ancients prefer Novelty before them and make open profession to follow and invent new Opinions which none had over produced before them as is manifestly seen in the proper declaration of Molina Posa Amicus Maldonat and as may easily be proved by many other Casuists of the Society As they are the chief Masters in this novel Science so they are sollicitous to make themselves many Disciples who in time becoming Masters make up a Body so puissant and an Assembly of probable Doctors so numerous that it would be hard to find so many in all other Societies taken altogether So that whether we consider the Votes or compute them they will still prevail above all others and remain the sole Arbiters and Masters of this new Morality And the better to maintain themselves for ever in this advantage above other Casuists and novel Doctors knowing that Empire and Dominion amongst the Learned as well as amongst the Vulgar is supported by union and ruined by division they are expresly ordered by their Superiors to agree in the same opinions and to maintain them all at least as probable and above all when they are advanced by some of the Heads and principal Authors of the Society and they believe that the interest and honour of their whole Body is in question This Conspiration in the same Opinions whereto the Glory of the Society hath engaged them does hold them fastned thereto with so much obstinacy that no Consideration nor Authority whatsoever no not even of the Church can oblige them to acquit
them or if they quit them being forced thereunto by the publick Complaints and Censures it is only in appearance and for a time and they afterwards resume their very same opinions and maintain and publish them as before as one may see in the Books of the English Jesuits of Sanctarel of Bauny of Celot and of Posa and of divers others who having been censured by the Church they have disavowed and suppressed them for a season but have shortly after produced them with the same opinions which had been condemned in them and with the approbation of the Superiors of their Company They have also established upon the same foundation the insupportable confidence which they have had unto this present to handle the Cases of Conscience and to govern Souls not only in an imperious manner but in a kind of Tyranny and to pass over all the primitive and true Laws of Christian Morality and Discipline that they may regulate all things according to their own proper reason and sense and sometimes against their own proper thoughts by their will only regarding nothing but their own interest and the satisfaction of the world whom they endeavour to please by conducting them rather according to their desires than according to the Rules of Truth and for their Salvation It is by this confidence joyned to so great complacency that they labour to introduce themselves in the world more than all others who hold their Maxims and endeavour to get credit with all persons great and small who finding their Divinity favourable to their interest and their passions do easily follow their advice and their conduct And so they easily diffuse every where the venom of their pernicious Doctrine which brings loosness and corruption into all sorts of conditions as we shall make it evidently appear at the end of this Extract These reasons have obliged me to take the Jesuits Morals for my Subject in this Book rather than those of others who are in the same opinions considering that they are the first Masters of this new Science that they surpass others in number of Writers as well as they believe themselves to surpass them in knowledge that they are the Inventors of many Opinions and those the most pernicious that they are all of a piece and agree together to sustain them that they are most obstinate in defending them even then when they are condemned that they are most advenurous and most insinuating to diffuse them unto the world and most complacent to cause them to be received So that I believe I shall combate all the corruption which Novelty hath introduced into Christian Morality by fastning upon the Divinity of the Jesuits since it is all inclosed therein as in the fountain from whence it diffuseth it self into the Spirits of other new Casuists who imitate them and into the consciences of the people of the world who follow them because of the facility of their conduct who permit them every thing that they will and sometimes more than they durst hope for The Order of the Matters of this Book I Distribute all this Book into three Books In the first I will handle the Principles of Sin to make appear that the Jesuits do establish and nourish them In the second I will speak of the Remedies of Sin to shew that they abolish or alter them In the third I will examine the particular Duties of every Profession and the Sins which they do ordinarily commit to shew that they excuse and favour these last and dispense with the first by abolishing and obscuring them in such manner that they appear not at all The first Book shall have two Parts The first shall be of the Interior Principles of Sin and the other of the Exterior I will divide every Part into so many Chapters as there are Principles of Sin which I shall take notice of And when the abundance of matter or the diversity of questions shall require it I shall divide also the Chapters into Articles the Articles into Points and the Points into Paragraphs I shall keep the same order in the other Books THE CONTENTS THE FIRST BOOK Of the Internal and External Principles of Sin The First Part. Of the Internal Principles of Sin CHapter I. Of Lust in General Pag. 1 Article I. Of Hatred That the Divinity of the Jesuits maintains aversions against our Neighbour that it allows us to wish and do him hurt and even to kill him though it be for temporal concerns and also when we are assured that by killing him we damn him Bauny Escobar Emanuel Sa Molina Amicus Lessius Pag. 2 Article II. Of Pride That the Jesuits cherish pride and vain-glory in all sorts of persons even in the most holy actions and that according to their Divinity it is almost impossible to sin mortally by pride or vain-glory Filliutius Escobar Sa Sanchez Pag. 7 Article III. Of fleshly Pleasure and Uncleanness Pag. 11. I. Point Of dishonest Discourses Looks and Touches Filliutius Escobar ib. II. Point Of the Servants and Mediators of unchast Commerce as are they who bear Messages or Letters and make appointments with Whores and who lodge or protect them Sanchez Hurtado Molina Escobar Pag. 15 III. Point Of dishonest thoughts and desires of Fornication Adultery and other such like sins and of the pleasure that may be taken therein Sa Sanchez Filliutius Layman Azor. Pag. 22 Article IV. Of Gluttony The Opinions of the Jesuits concerning the excess of Eating and Drinking and the bad effects which arise therefrom Escobar Sa Azor Sanchez Pag. 26 The Sum Of the foregoing Article Pag. 30 Article V. Of Covetousness I. Point That the Jesuits authorize all sorts of ways to get wealth and dispense with restitution of what is procured by the most unjust and infamous ways Escobar Filliutius Lessius Layman Sanchez Pag. 31 II. Point Divers motives and particular expedients to dispense with restitution though a man be obliged thereto Escobar Lessius Pag. 35 Article VI. Of Unfaithfulness Pag. 38 I. Point Of divers sorts of Vnfaithfulness and of Deceit which may be committed in things by altering them selling them by false weights and measures and taking those which are anothers without his privity Escobar Lessius Amicus Filliutius Tambourin Sa Dicastillus Pag. 39 II. Point Of Infidelity in Promises and Oaths Pag. 46 Section I. Several ways of mocking God and Men without punishment and without sin according to the Jesuits in promising that which they never intend to do and not doing that which they have promised although they are obliged thereto by Vow and by Oath Filliutius Sanchez Tambourin Sa Escobar ibid. Section II. The contrivance of the Jesuits to elude Vows made unto God Promises and Oaths made to a Confessor and to lye and deceive even in Confession Escobar Sa Sanchez Filliutius Pag. 52 III. Point Of Unfaithfulness in Conversation and common Discourse Pag. 54 Section I. An expedient which the Jesuits give for to deceive the World and to