there is no reason to say That Men must adore Images that there is no reason to fasten any virtue thereto to imagine that an Image of our Lady doth more Miracles than another that its blame worthy to carry them about in pomp to prostrate ones self before them to place them on Altars to make Vows and Pilgrimages to them and to buâ—n Incense to them as formerly they did to the false Gods If Invocation of Saints be done in the same Spirit as the Prayers which we present to the Faithful alive to pray for us It 's to accuse all those who do Invocate the Saints in another Spirit After all that I demand of those Gentlemen Why they do seek for an Extraordinary Turn That which they had used hitherto either was good reasonable and proper to give just Idea's of the Doctrine of the Roman Church or it was not so If it was not reason it is they should take another But how can it be that for so many years they have defended the Roman Church by so many Works without finding the proper Turn to give a just Idea of her Doctrine It 's a blindness of the preceding Doctors hardly to be conceived It 's a good hap for my Lord of Condom to have first found out the true sense of the Doctrine of the Church whereof one cannot suspect the cause But if the Turn which my Lord of Condom hath found out is different in that thing it self that it's different from others doth it not condemn them If that which he saith to us be the only true Sense of the Church all other Senses which Doctors have given it are false Senses and consequently he condemns all those that have not spoken like him Without doubt my Lord of Condom will say It was not his design to say any thing new that his Explications of the Doctrine of the Church are the Sense of the Canons of the Councils and of the decisions of the Doctors But if he pretended not to say any thing Extraordinary whence then comes the great Noise which those Gentlemen have made of that Work Can they look for so great Honour from a Thing that should have been said by all other Authors Whence is it that they have begg'd Approbations from all parts of the World That they put amongst those Approbators Cardinals Bishops yea the Pope himself For a thing which all the World had said should there be need of so mony Props seeing it could not be combated nor question'd Why doth my Lord of Condom at the end of his Work shew that he would not have us examine the different Means which the Catholick Theologues have used to establish or to cleaâ— up the Doctrine of the Council of Trent If he be agreed with the Doctors of his fide hath he cause to fear lest we should compare his Senses with theirs And is it not clear that he confesses thereby that he stands in great opposition to them If my Lord of Condom hath brought to light but the true and ancient Sense of the Church why doth he say at the end of his Book that he hath ruined all Disputes for that is it which these words signifie For to s y on this Treatise something solid c. they must shew that this Explication leaves all Disputes in their intire state He pretends then that his Explication must make all Disputes to cease I do not believe that he pretends thereto by the force of the Reasons whereby he hath upheld his cause For a little Book that only explains and which doth not prove cannot cause Disputes to cease by way of Discussion If it were true that the Sense which my Lord of Condom doth give is the Sense of the Roman Catholick Church that it should be received by both Parties and that it would not leave Disputes in their whole state it were true also that it would be some thing which the gravest Authors had not yet perceived For hitherto all the Divines of the Roman Catholick Church have verily believed that the Controversies about Images Invocation of Saints Indulgences Satisfactions were intire Disputes and most real The Council of Trent hath without doubt believed so for if their Sense had been that which my Lord of Condom gives and that it 's a Sense which leaves not Disputes whole why hath it pronounc'd Anathema's against the Lutherans and Zuinglians about things whereof it's decisions made all Disputes to vanish Let 's deal truly Did not the Council fulminate and condemn those People They did not then believe that the Sense of their Canons could easily be reconciled with the Doctrine of Zuinglius and of Luther Besides that I do not well conceive how my Lord of Condom can defend himself for having brought to light a Sense that was unknown to all that have Written and to the Prelates of the Council of Trent themselves Without doubt those Prelates pronounced Oracles without understanding them and more than an Age after an Interpreter is come who hath discovered that which the Holy Spirit had hitherto kept secret But it imports not whether my Lord of Condom be the first or only Man that hath understood the Council of Trent to the Exclusion of the Council it self he cannot hinder us from concluding That in establishing his Sense as the only good and as the Doctrine of his Church he condemns all others which the Doctors have given hitherto and therefore he acts for us and favours our Cause as much as it can be favoured Although the Explications of my Lord of Condom should terminate some different we should not be obliged to believe upon his Word that his Sense should be that of the Council of Trent It hath reproached to these Gentlemen that these Explications were against the Bull of Pius the Fourth which expresly forbids all Explications of that Council These be its own words To avoid the Confusions and Disorders that might arise if it were permitted to every One to bring to light their Commentaries and Interpretations upon the Decrees of the Council by Authority Apostolical we forbid all Persons Ecclesiastick or Laick of whatsoever Dignity Condition Honour or Power whatsoever and all Prelates under pain of being Interdicted the Entrance of the Church and others under pain of Excommunication to undertake without our Authority Commentaries Glosses Annotations Observations or any other kind of Interpretations under whatsoever Name neither under the very pretence of maintaining the Decrees better or Executing or any other Colour And if any find there is any thing obscure less clear needing Interpretation we Ordain he should ascend to the place which the Lord hath chosen that is to the Apostolick Seat which is the Master of all the Faithful and whereof the Holy Council it self hath acknowledged the Authority in a manner so full of respect After that should it be permitted to any private Man to give to the Council a Sense unknown to the whole Earth unknown even to the
of your Doctors On the contrary They lay before him the Scripture on the Tribunal of the Church They tell him Obey your Leaders suffer not your selves to be conducted by the false Lights of your own Reason Submit to the Mysteries but let not your Submission be blind consult the Scripture read instruct your selves and believe nothing upon the Witness of Men Do not rest but upon the Testimony of God His Word is clear solid sufficient for your Instruction His Authority is Soveraign and Independent of any other He sees not in the Worship of that Religion any strange Language which diffuses Darkness through all which conceals Mysteries from the Eyes of Ignorant Ones all is naked all is open all is simple He sees he hears all that is done all that is said every one Prays in the Tongue he understands and which is understood in the Country where he is This Infidel sees Preachers which exhort him to Repentance to Mortification to renouncing the Vanities and the Idols of the World but they do not impose on him the Necessity of declaring all the Motions of his Soul to a Man they order him to confess primarily to God then they advise him to make choice of a wise Director to discover with Liberty to him the Wounds of his own Conscience and to ask his Advices They tell him That all Human Satisfactions are incapable of paying the Justice of God That our Lord Jesus Christ hath paid for us abundantly That his Merit is granted to us by a gratuitous Mercy and that the true Satisfaction which God requires is the Contrition of the Heart Faith Charity and Amendment of Life They do not charge him with the multitude of External Observations of Fasts of Macerations of Pilgrimages They say to the contrary That bodily Exercise is profitable to little but that solid Piety hath the Promises of this present life and of that which is to come They labour to draw him out of the Security that the Worldlings are plunged in but they seek not to retain him in perpetual Terrours They tell him There is no Salvation for the Sinner that perseveres in Impenitency but that the true Penitent may be assured that God will shew him Mercy They assure him That if his Sins be pardoned him in this life they shall also be pardoned him in the other too and that there is no Purgatory nor Torments through which Men are to pass to arrive to Paradise They confess to him That they have not the power to remit Sins They tell him that that appertains to God only but they tell him That God never refuses that Grace to those that ask it with the Spirit of Humility In fine He sees nothing Pompous in the Government or that may relish of the Spirit of the World No Monarchs no Spiritual Soveraigns He sees none but Conductors that are Men of an equal Authority or if he sees in some places within that Church some Bishops and some Archbishops He understands that those Persons make Profession to have no other Head for the Spirituals but Jesus Christ and no other for their Temporals than those which God hath established in the World by his Providence If this Infidel who hath thus cast his Sight upon these two Religions be wise he will ask time to think of his Choice and will pronounce nothing upon what he hath seen But in Conscience can any Man believe that this Man who hath no other light but that of good Sense can perswade himself that these two Parties make up but one Religion that it is the same thing that their Differences are not Essential In one He sees Altars and Sacrifices in the other he sees none In the one he hears them invoke Saints and Angels in the other he sees they content themselves to reverence their Name and to invoke God In the one he sees Images to be served in the other he sees a mortal aversion for that Worship In the one he understands Nothing in the other he understands all If this Man suffers himself to be conducted by his Natural Lights he will without doubt believe that these two Religions are absolutely different and I cannot imagine that he could believe what my Lord of Condom saith That the Disputes of these two Parties can be nullified by explaining some Terms and that what remains hath nothing Capital and that can hurt the foundations of the Faith ARTICLE III. That we agree not about Fundamental Points BUt happily may some say That this general Review of the two Religions is proper only to make an Illusion because that in this Method Men judge only by appearances Now its true that they are in an Appearance of great distance whereas in examining things in particulars and at the bottom it may be that they would go near to accord about those things and should only dispute about Terms That might happily be and therefore I will not forbear entring into a particular Examen of each Article First My Lord of Condom saith That we all agree about the Foundations of the Faith that the Doctrines which we esteem Fundamental are all believed and professed in the Roman Church He brings for Witness thereof Monsieur Daillé who saith in his Book entituled Faith founded upon the Scriptures That all Fundamental Articles are without Contest that the Roman Church professes to believe them That in Truth we do not hold all the Opinions of that Church but that we hold all their Beliefs or Creances My Lord of Condom lays another Maxim which he draws from our Principles It's That if one agrees with the Foundations and then lays down Opinions which does overthrow those Foundations by Consequences we must not impute those Consequences to him who disavows The Opinion of the Lutherans about the real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist destroys the Human Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ by a lawful Consequence but the Lutherans disavow that Consequence therefore we will not impute it to them He would have us to have the same Equity for his Church For Example She establishes the Sacrifices of the Mass She lays down the Intercession of Saints She ordains Penances and Satisfactions We say That the first of them destroys the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the second prejudices his Mediation that the others are injurious to the Super-abounding fulness of his Merits But they say they are only Consequences which the Roman Church disowns therefore we may not impute the same to them without Calumny I might have many things to say thereabout If I had designed to make a great Book but I will restrain my self within this That this Consideration cannot be a Means of Reunion nor a Reason of our Re-entrance into the Roman Church First Because it 's not true that both Parties agree about all the Protestants esteem to be Fundamental There are Three general Foundations in Religion First That there is a God who is to be adored The
true that these things may be called Consquences and that we may be justified of that Accusation by denying them That is clear by this Example If one divide the Authority of the Prince Soveraign among his Subjects without his Permission I maintain That injury is done to him by that very thing and that one should not be received to say I deny I do injury to my Soveraign in giving one part of his Soveraign Authority to Others That 's a Consequence which I disown The Injury consists in the Act it self that is done and not in a Consequence which arises from the Action So to give a new Sacrifice new Intercessours and new Objects of a Religious Worship it 's directly to offend God the only Object of Religion It 's to oppose the Unity and Perfection of the Christian Sacrifice It 's to do injury to the only Intercessour and that by the very Actions which are done and not by Consequences which arise from those Actions But at least will they say You are obliged to grant that the most part of the Errours of the Roman Church are not Capital Thereupon I say Three things First That it 's enough if there be two or three Capital Errours and even One alone in a Religion to render intolerable that whith otherwise might have been tolerable The Second thing that I say is that the Errours which every one being apart might have been tolerated if they were alone cannot be born with when they are in a great Number A Life that should be wholly charged with those Sins which the Roman Church calls Venial and that should have no good Work at all would undoubtedly lead to Eternal death although every one of those Sins taken apart would not destroy Grace A Religion that should gather an infinite number of Practises of Superstitions and Errours whereof none were Capital could not be suffered nevertheless for it is a Capital Affair to bury the Truth in so great a number of Errours In fine I say that the Roman Church hath rendred Capital those of her Errours that would not otherwise be such since she hath made Articles of Faith of them She obliges under pain of Anathema that is to say Pain of Eternal damnation to believe that the Books of Maccabees are Canonical that Concupiscence after Baptism is no more Sin that the involuntary Motions of that Concupiscence are not Sins that Baptism is of an absolute necessity that Order is a true Sacrament that Marriage is not dissolved by Adultery and an hundred things of this Nature If she had received those Opinions without obliging others to receive them they might have been tolerated but as soon as she hath made them Articles of Faith they become intolerable For it 's a mortal Sin to receive Errours as Verities Fundamental It 's a horrid Crime to condemn to Hell Men that have but light Errours Now the Roman Church by her Anathema's obliges me to damn those who have but light Errours In fine It 's a black baseness to make Profession by Oath to believe as Capital Verities and necessary Ones such Opinions as we know to be Errours And that is it the Roman Church would oblige us to In a word I think to Reason justly in Reasoning thus All the Articles of Faith are Fundamental Points because they cannot be rejected without being Anathema's The Roman Church of those things which we might have considered as light Errours hath made Articles of Faith which may not be rejected without a direful Anathema Then hath the Roman Church in that regard those Opinions that could have pass'd for being of little importance Fundamental Points and in our regard Capital Errours And from thence it seems to me to be clear that after the decisions of the Council of Trent all Reconciliation is impossible with the Roman Church Because the Question is no more of tolerating light Errours but to believe them and make profession thereof and of damning all those that believe them not and that is it which an honest Man and a Christian cannot do ARTICLE IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him BEhold the Second Principle of that Union which my Lord of Condom propounds it 's That the Religious Worship in the Pag. 17. Church of Rome terminates in God If the Honour she gives to the Holy Virgin and the Saints may be called Religious it 's because it relates necessarily to God He would conclude thence That in retaining our Principle that every Religious Honour is to be related to God we can without hurt to our Conscience partake of the Worship of the Roman Church seeing that she teaches That every Religionâ— Worship is to be referr'd to God as to its necessary End 1. I wish that my Lord of Condom had cited to us some Text of the Council of Trent which might assure us That all Religious Worship is terminated in God I see there that we must invoke Saints because they reign with Jesus Christ and because they intercede for us c. I read there no more I conceive there is a little difference between invoking a Saint for reference to God and terminate a Religious Worship to God It 's true that the Roman Chuch invokes Saints by respect to God that is to say because they are the Saints of God because they govern under God because they have merited with God because they intercede before God for Men. If those Saints should have no relation to God no doubt Men would not serve them But is not this to impose visibly upon the World to say That because of that all Religious Worship is terminated in God Because that a Favourite hath the Princes Ear that he disposes of the places of the State under his Authority that he obtains of him what he will he is courted a thousand Homages are done to him do those Honours terminate in the Prince because of that Is he bound to own them and regard them as if done to himself A Man that would say such a thing would not he render himself ridiculous Who ever heard that Worship doth not terminate in that Person which is the immediate Object thereof Those Gentlemen conceive that they have right to say what they please and that we are bound to believe them on their Word 2. But though it should be the Intention of those that invoke Saints to terminate all their Worship in God would that Intention suffice to effect the thing If it were so there would never have been any Idolaters that is to say Persons that had adored Images or Idols For there was never any Religion so brutish as to terminate their Worship upon Brass or Wood Silver or Gold whereof the Image is compounded If any Person have done it it must not be imputed to the Religion Those Idolaters referr'd their Worship to the Deity which was represented by the Idol The Israelites had not offended God in the Worship of the Golden Calf for it 's as certain
the Hymn called Maris Stella they say Oh singular Virgin Debonnair among all defend us from our Guils render us Chaste and Mild give us a pure Life prepare us in the sure Way to the end that seeing Jesus we may enjoy an eternal Joy We have an hundred times reproached those Gentlemen that of Jure Matris impera of the Old Missals and the Monstra te esse Matrem but we shall still have right to reproach them therewith till satisfaction be given us by Reason for it Instead thereof they renew the same and publish them in French that none might be ignorant thereof Oh bend by thy power both of Mother and Queen thy Son and our King That is but from the Year 1672. Methinks the Date is fresh enough and that they should not accuse us to have digg'd up Books buried in Oblivion and old Excesses that are no more in use One should Copy and Transcribe all the Missals Breviaries and all other Books of Devotion if one would relate all Why then do those Gentlemen say They only pray the Saints to pray for us It 's say they that in whatever Terms the Prayers are conceived that we address to Saints the Intention of the Church and of her Faithful Ones still reduces them to that form It s long since Bellarmine had advised us thereof As for Words it 's permitted to say Oh St. Peter have mercy on me save me open me the Gate of Heaven give me health of Body give me patience give me Courage c. So that we understand Save us and shew us Mercy in praying for us That might surprize us indeed First I would fain know what would these Gentlemen say of a Man that would say in good earnest to St. Peter Save me and pardon my Sins without reducing them to this Form St. Peter pray for me By those things which my Lord of Condom saith I have cause to believe he would look on him as an Idolater for he saith that the Church teaches That Men must cleave to God as to Him who alone can make up our felicity by the Communication of an Infinite Good which is himself But is it not a terrible thing to put into the Mouth of the People such Formularies as do cast them every day into the peril of Idolatry Where are the Men that are not naturally carried to take Words in their Literal sense The Literal sense of these Words of St. Peter Save me Pardon me carries Men to believe that St. Peter can Save and Pardon Must a simple Man have still at his Ear an Interpreter to tell him Take heed of taking these Words in their Literal sense you would commit an act of Idolatry reduce these Prayers to the Sense of the Church In a word I never could conceive what Prudence there can be in hiding a pious and devout Sense under Expressions altogether Criminal Is it not to lay a Snare continually for the Souls of the Simple 2. It Saints have no other Charge than that of Praying to God for us why are they made the Governours of the World under God It 's a Thesis that Bellarmine maintains with divers Proofs and which is not contested That the Faithful alive are not only conducted and governed by Angels but also by the blessed Spirits Another Author saith That if Kings destroy Armies of Enemies if the Rich relieve the Poor if Physicians with their Art heal Maladies Saints can do the same thing as well as the Angels whereof one killed 185000 in one Night another restored Sight to Toby and a third delivered St. Peter from Prison Governours do not always go to the Prince to present him the Requests of Suppliants they act of themselves according to the extent of their Commission 3. If Saints have no Superintendency on Inferiour things why then are Kingdoms Towns Families and particular Persons put under their Protection Why have Mens several Conditions differing Arts and differing Evils their particular Saints St. Luke is Patron of Physicians St. Yves of Advocates St. Crispin of Shoemakers They that are in danger of Shipwrack invoke St. Nicholas Bishop of Myre Women in labour pray to St. Margaret St. Roch is prayed to for the Plague and St. Apollony for the Toothach All that clearly supposes that the Saints have received Commission under God to have care of certain Persons and to preside over certain things for otherwise the first coming to hand of all the Saints would suffice to receive the Prayers of Men in whatever place they were and present them to God They do then something by themselves 4. If all Devotion for Saints be reduced to saying to them Pray for us why have they censur'd the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti For in fine that Author had no other Aim but to bring thither the Prayers of Devout ones He would have them say Holy Mother of God supply by your Praises near the Almighty what our weakness cannot render to him and obtain for me from your beloved the Grace to know c. Yet hath that Book been censur'd at Rome and in Spain as containing Propositions suspected of Errour some Impieties and abuses of Scripture as withdrawing the Faithful from piety and Devotion to the Mother of God and from her Invocation This last word is very remarkable That Book withdraws from the Invocation of the Virgin He withdraws not from that Invocation Pray to God for us on the contrary he gives a Formulary express to invoke her so He withdraws then from the Invocation of the Virgin only because he would not have them to ask of her directly those things as if she were the Disposer thereof 5. Finally If the Sense of the Church be That Men pray the Saints to pray for us and no more why do they not censure so many Authors that tell us neatly That Saints give forgive save and distribute Graces themselves Câ—sterus writing on the Hymn Ave Maris Stella and explaining these words Loosen the Bonds of the Guilty thus Glosses thereon Solve Precibus Solve Merito Solve Auhoritate Solve Imperio Loosen with thy Prayers Loosen by thy Merit Loosen by thine Authority Loosen by thy Command I am tempted to add here all the like sayings of Bonaventure Gerson Cajetan Albert Ozorius Salazar Bernardine de Bustis and of Sienna Driedo Father Binet Viega Gabriel Biel Antonine and an hundred others that is to say the Ancients and Moderns the lesser the great and middle Authors But I will not yield to that Temptation for it would be an infinite work and we shall see anon that Father Cresset hath spared us that labour When they speak to us face to face they tell us Those are brave Authors indeed Must we judge of the Sense of the Church by little popular Books which ignorant Bigots put into the Peoples hands They are fallen into those Excesses which honest Men do condemn Yet these brave Authors are Canonized
above her Son that they give her all the glory of our Salvation It 's Father Cresset himself that teaches us that And when should we have done if we would cite all that Father Mainbourg in his History of the Icenoclastae and what so many others have said lately to establish that Worship of the Virgins and of the Saints For in fine Let any one visit the Presses and Libraries of St. Jame's Street or go to Michallet or all the others let him see if ever more Books were printed fit to nourish People in the Worship of Saints and entertain them in those Excesses that Men fain to condemn It 's there that Men shall find the Slavery of the Admirable Mother of God the Worship and Veneration which is due to the Nine Orders of the Celestial Hierarchy the Life of St. Josse and that of St. Peter the Chaplet or perpetual Adoration of the most Holy Sacrament l'Abbriegé del Indulgences the Statutes of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives the Mysteries of the Virgin the Panegyricks of St. Rose by the Father Oliva General of the Jesuites All these Books and a thousand others are newly printed and there we find a Theology and Devotions which should cause a true Grief to them that are truly jealous of the Glory of God and of his Honour Nothing is more capable to make us see in what Spirit Men serve and invoke the Saints than the Sacrifice of the Mass which they celebrate to their Honour My Lord of Condom makes an Article thereof and turns the thing to the fairest side let him not take it ill if we examine it in its Native state That they may not accuse us of Calumniating I will represent here the very Words of the Council of Trent If any one maintain that it 's an abuse to celebrate Masses to the honour of Saints and to obtain their Intercession with God as the Church understands let him be Anathema Here is happily the strangest thing in the World and which hath not been well considered of to this day They offer a Sacrifice to the honour of a Creature It 's true that the Council of Trent saith formally that they offer not Sacrifices to Saints But these Gentlemen will permit us to observe that in every Tongue to do Service to some Person or to do it in honour of that Person signifie the same thing We say The Pagans have built Temples to their False gods and to the honour of their False gods They have established Feasts to the honour of Demons and to Demons they have made Sacrifices to Idols and to the honour of Idols We believe then that we say by the second Expression the same thing as by the first Men do not speak otherwise in the World They say Men have erected a Statue to the Prince or to the honour of the Prince they have put up this Triumphers Ark to the King or to the honour of the King Those Gentlemen must make us Vocabularies quite new and advertize us that they are not pleased to speak like all Mankind Let 's a little unravel this confused Idea They may offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to the honour of a Saint by the hand of a Priest That is to say They may offer a God to our God to the honour of a Creature by the hands of another Creature The Victim is God the Son he to whom they offer him is God the Father he to whose honour he is offered it 's a Saint a Creature and he that offers is a Priest that is to say another Creature If that be not called to go against the Order observed in all the Religions of the World I know not how it may be called In every Religion Men observe in all their Sacrifices a certain gradation of Dignity among these Three things The Minister of the Sacrifice the Oblation and he to whose Honour the Oblation is offered The Oblation is always the least excellent for before time they were only Animals He that offered was much more excellent because it was a Man But lastly He to whose honour the Sacrifice was offered was infinitely greater than the Priest seeing they considered him as God And even this Order is found in this admirable Sacrifice of the Cross which seems to be gone beyond all Rules The Human Nature which is the Victim is in the lowest degree of Dignity The Lord Jesus Christ as God and Man together is the Sacrificer and under that regard he is more than the Victim In fine He in whose honour this Sacrifice is offered it is God who is superiour both to the Victim and to the Sacrificer For although the Lord Jesus Christ be equal in all things to his Father by his Divinity yet considered as God and Man he is Inferiour and it s in this regard that he saith The Father is greater than I. But in the Sacrifice which they celebrate to the honour of Saints this Order is turn'd upside down The Victim is infinitely more excellent than he to whose Honour it is offered for they offer the Body of Jesus Christ to the honour of Saints Behold a thing which may yet seem more incomprehensible The Council of Trent saith That Jesus Christ who offered himself on the Cross is the same who offers himself this day by the Ministry of the Priests that is to say that Jesus Christ offers himself he is then properly the Sacrificer His Sacrifice is celebrated to the honour of the Saints thence it follows that Jesus Christ offers himself to his Father to the honour of the Saints To offer to the honour of the Saints it is to honour and to serve them So Jesus Christ who is the Master and the Creator serves and honours the Saints which are the Creatures in Sacrificing himself to their honour Methinks this Consequence comes not far yet it appears to me terrible Here is another that is but little less In all Sacrifices the Sacrificer is the Suppliant and he that demands favours He to whose honour men offer is the Person of whom these favours are demanded and the Victim is the Means by which the Suppliant inclines him of whom he demands Here the end is to implore the Protection of the Saints and to obtain their Intercession with God They are the very words of the Council He that labours to obtain this Grace is the Sacrificer and this Sacrificer is Jesus Christ the Victim by means whereof he essays to obtain this Grace it is his Body and Blood Gather all these things together and say The Son of God God himself blessed for ever offers to God the Sacrifice of his Body and of his Blood to obtain from a Saint his Protection and his Intercession for the Faithful According to that is it not true that Jesus Christ renders himself Mediator and Intercessour with the Saints sor to obtain of those Saints the Grace of their Intercession for
the preceding But in truth one cannot resolve to say over always the same things I will only say That one must not treat of it as of a small business nor imagine it to be no obstacle to Reunion The Worship of Images is a Practise of all most opposite to the Spirit of Christianism and the most contrary to the dignity of Man It 's to do great wrong to a Man to oblige him to humble himself before Wood and Stone which are so far below him Men should not flatter themselves It 's the great Scandal of the Jew he hath Images in abhorrence and when he looks on Christian Religion on that side he conceives a mortal aversion from it So we cannot imagine that to be a small Affair an Article which retards that great Work of the Conversion of the Jews without which the Church will never be perfect But say they will Men never conceive that it 's a great Wrong to compare or confound us with Idolatrous Pagans It 's not true that we confound the Roman Church with the Pagans Pagans adored the Images of wicked Men and even the Idols of Demons the Roman Church serves the Images of Saints and of the Friends of God viz. Apostles Martyrs Confessors Those Gentlemen will nevertheless permit us to tell them That they put Pagans in places wherein they have not been so to put an infinite distance between those Pagans and themselves about the Service of Images and suppose that Pagans have ador'd their Images as gods We should have a little better Opinion of Men who resembled us so much for ordinary use of Reason They regarded their Images but as Pictures and Representations of their gods If I could here take the leisure I would prove it with the clearest Evidence possible My Lord of Condom justifies his Church about Images by these Words of the Council of Trent Which forbid to believe any Divinity or Vertue for which it should be rever'd have any Grace demanded thereof or fasten ones Confidence thereon I am surprized to see that after this Decree they suffer Prayers addressed to Images and that Men should say to the Cross O Cress more bright than all the Stars famous in the World amiable to all Men holier than all things which alone hast been worthy to bear the Talent of the World Sweet Wood that bearest the Nails and the Sweet Weights save this present Assembly that comes hither to celebrate thy Praises Every one knows the solemn Prayer made to the Cross on great Feasts particularly at Easter in Holy Week God save thee our only Hope in this time of the Passion augment the Righteousness of the Faithful and grant Pardon to the Guilty I know well what they say That these Prayers are referr'd to Jesus Christ Crucified It is not the Sense of Thomas Aquinas the Prince of the School for he maintains That the Worship of Latria ought to be deferr'd to the Cross and that Worship to be distinct from that which is rendred to Jesus Christ He proves it by the Hymn O Crux ave spes c. he concludes That the Cross whereon Christ Jesus hath been Crucified ought to be worship'd with Worship of Latria both because of the representation and that it hath touch'd the Members of Jesus Christ As for the Images of the Cross of whatever matter they be they must be adored with Latria only of the first sort viz. with a Relative Latria He seems to have reason for we cannot conceive how they can have Intention to speak to Jesus Christ speaking to his Cross seeing they expresly distinguish Christ from his Cross and that they say to it Arbor decora fulgida c. Thou art a fair and bright Tree adorn'd with the Kings Purple chosen cut of a precious Stock to touch his Holy Members I find that very good that the Council of Trent hath declared That there is no virtue at all within the Image but I cannot conceive how after that they have left in the Roman Pontifical Prayers which necessarily suppose that there is a Sanctifying virtue in the Images of the Cross For Example this which the Bishop utters in blessing a new Cross Take then this Cross in thy hands wherewith thou didst formerly embrace it and by the Sanctity of that sanctifie this as by that the World hath been purg'd of his Sins so the Souls of thy Servants that offer thee this Cross by its Merit may be preserv'd from all Sin After this Decree of the Council of Trent I know not why they tolerate the use of Agnus Dei whereto they attribute Virtue of preserving from the Crafts of the Devil and from the the Frauds of the Evil Spirits to keep from Shipwrack to put under shelter from all Adversity to preserve from the Pest from corrupt Air the Falling-sickness Storm Fires Peril in Childbirth and from all Iniquity I know not why they go in Pilgrimage to an Image of our Lady more than to another For in fine If Images have no other use than to recall the Memory of the Originals they are all alike If the Spirit of the Council of Trent was opposite to these Devotions why were they not retrench'd At the most will they say You cannot accuse the Church but of Negligence and Toleration but you cannot oppose to the Council of Trent any thing that may be of equal Authority I oppose thereto Books little less authorized than it as the Pontifical and Roman Ceremonial made by the Pope's Order approved and received by all the Roman Church review'd several times since the Council of Trent I oppose thereto the general and constant practise of all the Bishops even of the most moderate There is none of them that would bless a Cross in other Terms than those which are prescribed by the Pontifical I oppose thereto the practice of the whole Roman Church for if there be in France and elsewhere some honest persons who have purer Sentiments and which are disingaged from Popular Errours they make no Number in comparison of the People of Italy Spain Germany and France it self who are in this Practise My Lord of Condom about this matter goes farther than one could have believed He would fain perswade us that in the Roman Church they do not serve Images at all Our Intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image We use Images but to lift up our Spirit towards Heaven That is equivocal and they say That in Manuscript Copies of this Work which have ran through Mens hands long before it was printed my Lord of Condom spoke more strongly but having seen the Success of his Book and seeing himself upheld by so great Approbation he is return'd thither he goes freely through and makes the Author of the Advertisement say We serve not Images God forbid but we serve our selves of Images to raise us up to the Originals These
a true Sacrament as to the Sign I Answer That it is a true Sacrament as to the Thing signified It is certain that to speak exactly he doth not take with his Mouth the Sacrament of Jesus Christ for this Sacrament is composed of Two parts and he receives but One But he receives Jesus Christ signified by the Sacrament and receives as much of Graces as they that Communicate of the Sacrament it self Why Because the Sacrament is entirely presented to him because he receives it in his desire and heart and because only an insuperable Impossibility hinders him from communicating of the Sign Suppose we that a Man is found which hath the same aversion for the Bread as for the Wine that never was it may be found but it is not impossible This Man will come to the Lords Table he will take with his hand the one and the other Sign he 'l bring them near to his Mouth but he will return them not being able to pass further What doth that Man Doth he take a true Sacrament Not at all he takes not the Sacrament he recelves the Spiritual things presented under the Sacrament that is Grace But to what purpose doth he come near the Table to receive nothing there For he might have received Grace without stirring from home He comes to make unto God a solemn Protestation that his Impotency is the only cause that hinders him from partaking of the Signs that he thirsts after his Grace that he desires to have part in the efficacy of the Sacrament and to shew to all the Faithful that he doth not deprive himself of those Sacred Signs out of contempt of Religion If those Doctours do not relish this Theology I beseech them to hear St Bernard that tells them It is not Privation of the Sacrament that damns but Contempt I conjure them to consult all the Theologues of their School and examine what they say of Baptism of Vow or the Vow of Baptism There is none but saith That he who desires sincerely and ardently to receive Baptism and dies without partaking of the Sign doth nevertheless receive the Efficacy and all the Virtue of Baptism ARTICLE XIV Of Holy Scripture WE have upon this Article very important Controversies with the Roman Church of the Perfection of Scripture of its Obscurity of its Authority also touching the Utility and Necessity of Reading the said Holy Scripture of the Soveraign Judge of Controversies and of Traditions Monsieur de Condom passes almost all these under Silence and wraps it up in few Words except the Question of its Authority which he Treats of a little more largely I have no design neither to make here large Common places upon these Controversies Volumes have been sufficiently written on both sides to compose great Libraries I will only say That all the dexterity of Monsieur de Condom will never make us to pass this for a thing of small importance We shall never relish that any should make it their Task to speak ill of Holy Scripture It is a wicked Character and a bad Prejudice for these Doctours Cause When Men speak ill of their Judge and that they seek for Means of Recusation against him it is a Proof that they do not believe him favourable to their Interest If the Roman Church believed the Scripture to be on their side they would not seek out so many Means to make her lose her Credit with the People It is a thing that could never be believed if we did not see it That Christians should busie themselves to prove that the Book which includes the Doctrine that saves them from Hell is an imperfect and mutilate Book gnawed by the Teeth of Time depraved and corrupted by the Jews and by the Hereticks that it contains but a little part of the Doctrine of the Church that they must add thereto the Help of Traditions That it is an an Obscure Book that Men cannot understand it without the help of the Church that God hath filled it with Rocks and Shelfs that proud Spirits might be wracked thereon That it is a Leaden Rule which Men turn what way they please that Hereticks may easily abuse it to fight against the Truth that we find not Light enough therein to dissipate the Darkness of Errour that it is a Labyrinth wherein Men are necessarily lost when they are not conducted that it hath no Authority in regard to us without the Testimony of the Church that it hath not Characters of Divinity sufficient to prove it self that it cannot explain it self by clear Places of what it saith in obscure Passages that without the Authority of the Church we should be no more obliged to believe it to be Divine than any other Book that the Lecture of this Book is dangerous that one must extreamly distinguish the Persons to whom the Reading thereof should be permitted that Versions in the Vulgar Tongue cannot appear without peril that the People should not have liberty of handling these Sacred Books They would have us to hear all these things patiently and that we should keep Silence thereat But that cannot be We should be the most base and the most ungrateful of all Men if we should abandon the Defence of a Book to which alone we are beholding next to God for our Eternal Salvation They will not fail to tell us that we are Calumniators and they speak not with that contempt of the Holy Scripture They will bring us the Testimonies of some particular Persons of the latter days which have spoken of it with grand Eloges and Praises And I could relate the Words of other particulars and would bring an hundred for one which speak thereof in the Terms which I expressed just now If Monsieur de Cedeau Bishop of Grass if the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have spoken of this Scripture with the Respect due thereto that hath not been regarded as their fair side and best Character And all the World knows the Violent Persecutions whereto some have been exposed because of that Monsieur de Condom may say what he pleases in favour of Tradition but we maintain That it is an opening of the Door to all the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship There is none so strange and so opposite to the Spirit of Christianism that may not enter into the Church under this Name of Tradition Sad Experience teaches us enough thereof It is this Word that filled with Images the Temples of Christians to the great Scandal of those who are jealous of the Purity of Worship It is that which introduced into Religion the Service of Creatures Invocation of Saints the Worship of the Holy Virgin Pilgrimaget Adoration of Relicks and so many other such like things If the Roman Church were reduced to defend her self only by Scripture she should soon be driven to forsake the most part of her Worship and of her Devotions But where Scripture fails her Tradition is an obscure Spring entangled and Profound which furnishes with all
that she pleases Methinks it is very unjust to wrangle with People and impose it for a Crime on them that they will not believe but God alone speaking in the Scriptures and by the Pen of his Prophets and Apostles With what Justice would they have us to regard as a small business that Enterprize to have taken away the Word of God in the Book thereof from the hands of the People Is not that a Capital Affair Where shall Knowledge be drawn if the Spring thereof be shut up Where shall Men learn to know God aright if they rob the People of that Book where God himself makes himself known When I see that they say with Confidence That it is not true that they have forbidden the Lecture of the Word of God that dismays me and drives my Patience to the utmost I know not how Men can contradict so a Publick Authority It is true that there are some in the Roman Church which condemn that Prohibition made to the People of Reading the Holy Scripture and I could wish no fairer Discourse thereon than what hath said the Author of the Dialogues between the two Parishioners of Saint Hilary du Mont. But what was said of those Persons They say they have borrowed the Weapons of Hereticks and have brightned them the more They accuse them to oppose the Sentiments of the Church because that the Church conducted by Gods Spirit permits not indifferently the Reading of Holy Scripture to all Persons without the Advice and Explication of Ecclesiastical Superiours for fear lest the Difficulty or Obscurity of Understanding in some places should produce Scruples and Errours in Mens Spirits It being certain that all Heresies which are born in its bosom have always their foundation and their defence in the Words of the Holy Scripture ill understood It is the Lord Bishop of Ambrun who speaks in his Ordinance against the Traduction of Mons. I think he knows what he saith for the least thing that may be granted to an Archbishop it is that he should know Religion And indeed doth not all the World know that the Rules which are at the Head of the Index Expurgatorius forbid the Lecture of the Holy Word of God excepting those who shall have permission from their Ordinary of the Curate or the Confessor It is not a Decree of the Council of Trent will they say No but it is the Spirit of the Council They are Theologians deputed by the Council of Trent that speak it It is Pope Pius the Fourth who presided in that Council and who possessed the Spirit thereof Sixtus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth Successours of Pius the Fourth ought to have had the Spirit of the Church Methinks it is they that say That by the Command and Use of the Holy Inquisition Romaine Universella the Power of permitting the reading or retaining the Bible in the Vulgar Tongue both of the Old and of the New Testament hath been taken away from Bishops Inquisitors or Superiours of the Regulars Let Men but read the last Writings which have been made thereabout upon the occasion of the Version of Mons the Ordinances of my Lords of Paris and of Ambrun the Writings of Father Annat and all the Apologies which have been made for the Defence of those Pieces and Men shall see whether it be true That the Reading of Scripture be permitted and ordained to all the World I must remit those that will be instructed in this Matter to the Book of Monsieur Mallet where Men shall see the Councils Popes Cordinals Bishops Faculties of Theology and the Theologues agreeing in this Article It is That the Reading of the Word of God is dangerous when it is permitted to all the World But is there need of Proofs for a thing that is seen Where is there a Reading of the Word of God in favour of the People Is it in the Church If they Read any part thereof it is in a strange Tongue it is no more for Instruction It is for Prayer as said a Franciscan in the Council of Trent Is it in Private Houses But in what Country doth the People know the Word of God of himself Certainly in Spain and in Italy the Bible is that of all Books that the People knows least of In France some honest Persons read it but their Number is very small It is not charged as a Duty upon any Person happily there are not of a Thousand One that hath cast his Eyes upon this Sacred Book Thence comes the profound Ignorance of most People even of those who distinguish themselves by their quality or by their Character We must not flatter our selves We shall never regard that Conduct as coming from the Spirit of God and we shall never re-enter into a Church which treats Holy Scripture with so much Injustice ARTICLE XV. Of the Church AS for the Authority of the Church it cannot be an Affair of little Importance seeing the Question is whether the Tribunal of it shall be lifted up above the Holy Scripture Monsieur de Condom cannot be ignorant that this Controversie of the Infallible Authority of the Church is an Article so Capital that thereon depends all the Re-union whereto they invite us Whilst that the Roman Church shall call it self Infallible she will shut the Door against all Reformation and as long as she shall refuse all Reformation she cannot hope that we shall return into her Bosom This Doctrine of Infallibility is the most dangerous that could ever enter into the Church because it opens the way to all sorts of Errours and Superstitions and takes away all liberty of Examining those things which Use or Authority have once established A Church that calls her self Infallible boldly establishes boldly what she wills and what may be found useful for its Interest And after that there is no more any Means to return We must also be permitted to say That this is an Affair of the highest Importance seeing the Foundation of the Faith of our People depends thereon They would not have us to establish it on the Holy Scripture which is the Stay and Pillar of Truth and they would have us to knowledge all that we must believe as from the Church without being able to tell us which is this Church and where are the Titles of its Infallibility These Gentlemen do thrust us very hardly upon the Authority of Scripture the diversity of its Senses upon the liberty whereof they accuse us as given to Women and to Artificers to interpret it after their manner and to make themselves a new Religion if it seems good to them But I know not how they mind not that with all their Maxims of Submission and blind Obedience for their Interpretations of the Church they must cast the Faith of their People into an incertitude greater a thousand times than that wherein they say that we are It is the Church say they to whose Interpretations we must cleave I will but let them
A PRESERVATIVE Against the CHANGE OF RELIGION OR A Just and true Idea of the Roman Catholick Religion opposed to the Flattering Portraictures made thereof and particularly to that of my Lord of Condom Translated out of the French Original by CLAUDIUS GILBERT Batchelor of Divinity and Minister of Belfast LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey 1683. TO THE Worshipful Soveraign AND THE BURGESSES OF THE Borough of Belfast AND To the Inhabitants thereof Christian Friends THis Learned Piece was lately brought to my Hand by a Signal Providence in its Native French Dress By the renewed perusal thereof I found it to be very Substantial and Seasonable which made me willing to render it more useful by Publishing it in our Vulgar Habit. It hath been found to be of singular Service in its Native Country and may be so among us likewise through God's Blessing Whilst so many Thousand of our Neighbours Houses are daily Fired it 's time for All to awake The multiplied Persecutions of the Protestants in France so causelesly renewed of late should rowze up all Christians round about them In such Infectious Times a Choice ANTIDOTE should be valued and desired of All. Many Reasons might oblige me to recommend this Present to your View and Improvement The choice Ingredients thereof were very Skilfully Composed and Faithfully Dispensed by the Learned Author thereof My Zealous Affections for all Your Prosperous Welfare chiefly in Spirituals and for the Common Interest of all Christians have perswaded Me to this Publication which I desire cordially to commend to the Blessing of the Most High as becomes the Function and Relation of Your Faithfully Devoted in the Lord Jesus for the best Service CLAVDIVS GILBERT Belfast July 3. 1682. THE CONTENTS OF THE ARTICLES Contained in this BOOK ARTICLE I. GEneral Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book pag. 19 Article II. A General Idea of both Religions p. 36 Article III. That we agree not about Fundamental Points p. 45 Article IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him p. 53 Article V. Of the Invocation of the Saints p. 56 Article VI. Of Images and Relicks p. 78 Article VII Of Justification and Merit of Works p. 87 Article VIII Of Satisfactions Indulgences and Purgatory p. 101 Article IX Of Sacraments in General p. 115 Article X. Of the Eucharist of Real Presence and of Transubstantiation p. 120 Article XI Of the Adoration of the Host p. 137 Article XII Of the Sacrifice of the Mass p. 152 Article XIII Of the Retranchment of the Cup p. 165 Article XIV Of Holy Scripture p. 176 Article XV. Of the Church p. 182 Article XVI Of the Pope and of his Authority p. 189 Article XVII Of the Points which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten Of the Worship in an Vnknown Tongue Of the Multitude of Ceremonies Of Masses without Communicants Of forced Celibat p. 198 A PRESERVATIVE Against the Change of Religion OR A just and true Idea of the Catholick Roman Religion opposed to the flattering Portraicture which is made thereof and particularly to that of my Lord of Condom NEver were greater Efforts in France to effect what they call Conversions and never was the Truth attack'd by so many Means nor fought with so much Success We see nothing else every where but Scandalous falls therefore they that lay to heart their Salvation ought to be furnished beforehand against the Contagion of this ill Air that reigns at this day It 's time to awake when the house is burning and one may say that if the Zeal of our Reformed in France be not kindled anew they are next to the seeing the ruine of their whole Party The Book of my Lord of Condom is one of the Means which is used with most Success to delude those Spirits that are Wavering and whereof the Piety is ill fixed These Gentlemen have so high an Opinion of that Work and of what it can do that many Bishops cause it to be printed at their own Cost and to be distributed within their Diocess to all considerable Protestants there The Temptation is powerful and the Method which my Lord of Condom hath used is dextrous his Artifices are fine and delicate and it is certain that this Book is able to Corrupt the hearts of those that are inclin'd towards the World and who are seeking out some Pretences to quit a Religion so cruelly attack'd It is then needful that all the World should be taught that every one should keep his Guard well against such a Temptation And as the Roman Church labours to spread my Lord of Condom's Book through all Europe by causing it to be turn'd into all Languages we must also disperse through them all the Answers opposed thereto And when the Publick shall have found one best liked every Particular Person should furnish himself with a Copy thereof that may be still at hand and still read over to be continually upheld against such a Temptation as is never at an end but is uncessantly still renewing Ever since that Loss which the Roman Church had in the beginning of the last Age of so many Millions of Souls which did then separate from her Communion no Endeavours have been omitted to repair that Breach and no Means but have been employ'd to bring back into her Bosom such as have gone away from it We must needs bear them this Witness that never so much Ardor and Zeal was seen in any Enterprize never was a more serious and important Affair undertaken than this design they have laid to hinder the duration and progress of That which they call Schism and Heresie It is indeed a design which cannot be blamed If these Gentlemen are well perswaded that the Religion which we have abandon'd is the only One that may conduct unto Salvation We may not wonder if they labour to bring us back thereto provided that they endeavour it in a good way honestly and by a Principle of Charity and true Zeal But as it often happens that in such a case Men prove the Cullies of their own hearts and that Self-love the Interest of the Flesh and that of the World do delude them all should well examine themselves in that regard and not take it ill that they that are concern'd therein be willing to have their part in such an Examination We should not imagine that all that which is called Zeal for Religion and a design to convert Hereticks should necessarily flow from a good Principle On the contrary God for the Trial of the Faith of his Elect hath almost always permitted that false Religions have had more Zeal for the destruction of the True than the True Religion for the ruine of the Falser When Christian Religion became predominant She did not do that for the ruine of Paganism which had been done against her during the Reign of Pagan Emperours It 's true that true Zeal is always accompanied with Moderation and false
God that gave it us It is to prefer willingly Darkness to Light it 's to merit that God should cast us into a Reprobate sense and deprive us of all knowledge of his Truth Do what men can they cannot but esteem slightly such as change their Religion for carnal Considerations for a Charge for a Pension and for such like Preferments It 's then clear that it 's not honest to sollicite men to commit base and criminal Actions for which they are afterwards slighted Father Mainbourg doth rationally commend Paul the Third who forbad Cardinal Contarin to give or promise any thing to the Protestant Divines not willing that it might be said that he had corrupted them with Mony to bring them by so base a way to the Belief of the Church which employs Means much more noble to convert the Strayers It 's hard to believe that this Author hath not in view some Persons nearer him than Paul the Third than Cardinal Contarin and the Lutherans of the time past The Roman Catholick in France the Protestant in Holland and in England should never say Your Religion is an invincible Obstacle to your Fortune nothing will be done for you whilst you are of that Religion Methinks the Devil hath rendred this Conduct very suspicious and Men should think it their point of Honour not to imitate him and not to say as he I will give thee the Kingdoms of the world and their glory III. It seems also to me that it s but an ill Character in the Zeal that seeks Conversions to be so indifferent in the Choice of People It 's true that the Net of the Gospel Preaching gathers on the Sea-shoar all that is found within its compass Dirt Stones and Pearls but the Fisher-man makes his Choice he takes the Pearls and throws the rest into the Water The true Church doth inclose indeed enough of Prophane and ill Christians whereof she cannot get rid because they are born in her bosom She hath no need to fortifie the ill Party and increase it by receiving the Impious the Libertines and worldly Professours which do cast themselves into her Arms only to recover the Reputation that they have lost and upon design to procure themselves some Protectors against the Party which they have dishonoured by their Crimes The Spirit that should conduct men to Jesus Christ is a Spirit of Purity and of Renunciation to the World for the Lord saith If any will follow me he must deny himself I think therefore that the true Church should never open her Arms unto such who have always distinguished themselves by a life full of Disorders unless she may have good assurances that they will renounce Crime as well as Errour And to be assured of that there must be a long Trial. I know well what is said and thought about it It 's true say they that by these sorts of Conversions we augment not the Number of the Saints but we lessen that of the Hereticks In diminishing their Number they may happily be brought one day to be ashamed of their Singularity Their Multitude helps to make them Heady they perswade themselves to be in the right because they see themselves to be many who report it so one to another These ill Converts say they again have Families to be saved they have Children that may be made good Christians the Stock is naught but the Branches may be sanctified Whoever Reasons after this manner be he Catholick Roman or Protestant assuredly reasons but badly Although these kinds of Reasoning were not altogether delusions yet must it needs be granted that they are Maxims of a Politick purely human for indeed the Spirit of Christianism doth not commit a present Evil for the prospect of a future Good He abhors Vice and Crime he would not be beholding to it for the Salvation of many Souls though it could be the very occasion of saving some The Church casts all those dead Carkasses on the Shoar far enough from receiving them into her bosom under whatsoever pretence IV. In fine Sincerity and good Faith are in my Judgment an inseparable quality of true Zeal The Prince of Darkness often transforms himself into an Angel of Light but never doth an Angel of Light take the form of the Prince of Darkness Falshood often abuses the Truth to support it self but Truth can never make any good use of Falshood This is to borrow the Devils Weapons for to fight for Jesus Christ and that cannot have any good success for there is nothing common between Christ and Belial It 's true that pious Frauds are no New things Of a long time have Miracles been fained Oracles supposed and Books published under the Names of Authors who were known to have some weight with those whom they had a design to convert It 's that which hath given birth to the Oracles of the Sybils to the Books of Mercurius Trismegistus and to the false Visions of the Pastor and to so many other Deceits contrived with a good Intention But this Conduct though it be ancient is not therefore become better by growing old Never will Deceit prescribe against Probity and good Faith It will always be true That a Zeal which deceives Men to convert them is a Zeal that is false ignorant and misunderstood There is hardly any kind of Deceit which is not practised to fortifie ones own Party and to diminish the opposite Party But here is that which is most ordinarily used and with less Secrecy It 's that on one side they paint out the Religion which they would combat with colours most black and hideous they render it monstrous that it may cause horrour they dissemble what Good it hath they exaggerate what it hath of Evil they give a Criminal Character to all its Expressions they make Heresies of all Tenets they ascribe to it what it doth not hold they disguise with the hue of Infidelity what it holds On the other part they fairly colour the Religion whereof they undertake the defence they draw the Curtain on that which might scandalize it they give an air of Innocency to their most criminal Practices they cover with fair Names the foulest Things It 's a kind of discredit whereof each Party accuses the opposite Party the Roman Catholick accuses the Protestant and the Protestant accuses the Roman Catholick It 's a Process that one cannot decide but by examining to the bottom to see who is in the wrong and who it is that imputes or imputes not As I do not here pretend to be uninterest'd being a declared Protestant I make no difficulty to pronounce that our Side is alone in the good Faith yet will I not be believed upon my Word But the thing is so clear and so well known of all the World that I could suppose it without taking the pains to prove it They have black'd Us with the most horrid Imputations and it 's a case of so great notoriousness that I know not whether it be
fair dealing but at this day things are very much altered the first Method hath not been found significant therefore the second is now taken up yet have they not universally renounced the former Italy Spain and most part of Germany and even of France either know not or relish not these Sweetnings Those that are grown old in the old Opinions do also respect the ancient Expressions as Consecrated and find it not difficult to use the Politicians as Prevaricators I wish they would observe these considerable Words of Father Mainbourg in his History of Lutheranism These pretended Expositions of the Faith which suppress or dissemble or express in ambiguous Terms only or too much sweetned a part of the Doctrine of the Church do satisfie neither the one nor the other which do equally complain that Men do mince it in an affair so delicate as Faith is where Men cannot fail in one point but that they must fail in all We understand well what he would say and whom he aims at it 's neither at Cardinal Contaren nor at the Authors of ancient Enoticks it 's to those that do Byass it at this day in their Expositions of the Catholick Faith Father Mainbourg writes like an honest Man he is most able and hath the right Sense of things There are then able and honest Men in the Roman Church who disapprove these ways of Sweetning and dare to say and to print it But there are others that think to prosper better in the Conversion of those whom they call Hereticks in stripping the Roman Church of all those terrible Images wherewith others have cloathed it Happily they may be of the same Apprehension with the others but they judge it good to express themselves otherwise to bring nearer again those Spirits which they had scared by their hard Manners Yet would I believe that among those moderate Persons there are many that do deal fairly that would willingly have things as they express them who if they were believed would reduce the Worship of Images to a little matter and would accommodate themselves in divers respects to the Weakness of those whom they consider as separate from the Church I believe the Author of the Saving Advises of the Virgin Mary to her indiscreet Devotes is of this Order and I doubt not but he hath many Approbators But though he had infinitely more that alters nothing at the bottom The Roman Church remains still the same in her Worship in her Canons and in her Dogma's Among all those Works which have for their aim the Sweetning of things and to lead Christians into a Spirit of Reconciliation there 's none more famous than the little Book of my Lord of Condom that hath for Title Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine about Matters of Controversie There was never any Work whereof the Author and his Party have made more boast especially since it 's fortified with the Approbations of Rome They look thereon as on the triumph of the Roman Church and they pretend that those changes of Religion that are at this day sufficiently ordinary and which they call Numerous Conversions are the effects of my Lord of Condom's Method I grant that I am not able enough to enter into the Merit of that piece I see nothing therein but what was written long ago My Lord of Condom hath not been the first who hath essay'd to disguise the Doctrine of the Roman Church It 's more than fity years since that this Method of Sweetning hath been used to draw Men and though it had not been printed it 's certain that it hath been used an hundred times by word of Mouth and face to face Except the delicate Dress the sweet and insinuating Manners of my Lord of Condom and some bold Propositions in the Subject of Images I see nothing there of his own nor that should have gained him so many Approbations Notwithstanding mens Spirits are so affected till labour be taken to recover them from it The Roman Catholick considers this Book as the Buckler of his Faith and the mighty Instrument of Conversions and the Protestant looks thereon as on a Ghost whereof he dreads the Illusions I am deceived if it be so dreadful as men imagine All its St eagth consists in disguising things from us and making us to behold them in another face Therefore there is need only to make that appear in its Natural state which he doth represent through a Veil to us That Work hath been Answer'd most learnedly and solidly and if I had no other design but that of Answering it I believe I should not trouble my Pen about it but here I much less purpose to Answer my Lord of Condom than to make a Book opposite to his All that Art and dexterity can imagine to engage those of our Religion to embrace his own is sprinkl'd through his Book and I will put into mine what I believe most capable to preserve them from the peril whereinto he would cast them My Lord of Condom presents his Religion to us under a Veil which he hath composed by an extraordinary effort of Spirit He would have Us to behold her only through that Veil But he may take it well though we have not that complaisance for him because it might be fatal to our Salvation I will therefore draw this Veil paint out the Roman Religion according to Truth whereto nothing can be reproached and shew it in its Natural complexion This is in my mind the best Preservative that we can give our People and particularly it 's of absolute necessity to ruinate the Design of my Lord of Condom Without having precisely a design to combat him yet will I fight him every where because I shall meet him every where and will be obliged to take off the Veil which he hath spread upon the Worship and the Dogma's of his Church I will bind my self also to follow his Order because he hath nothing but what is natural enough One may easily judge that the Affairs whereinto I chuse to enter is a question of Fact purely I will not engage my self to the discussion of the Right I do not enquire here which hath best Reason whether the Roman Church or the Protestant it 's enough to know what is taught both in the one and in the other Religion and not at all whether it be ill for either of them to teach so Therefore will I forbear proving and will not so much as touch those Proofs that my Lord of Condom brings in for his own Party But before we enter into the particulars I believe it fit we should make some general Reflexions ARTICLE I. General Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book FIrst To know a Book well we must enter if possible into the Spirit of it and see within what prospect it hath been composed The Work now in hand is one of those that hath been produc'd by the design of reuniting the two Religions in France a design which some
question was only but about matter of Fact or their Controversies but of little Importance The Donatists upon that discovery had but unhandsomly said to the Catholicks Return to us that will be as commodious as if we our selves should come to you I am very sensible that this will be their Thought These Gentlemen say that they are in Possession It 's true among other things they are in Possession to suppose as certain that which is in dispute They are the Church It 's that whereof we agree not If they were the Church and that Church sound and entire we would not be so unreasonable to propose it them for to come to us The Church of St. Augustine was the true Church that of the Donatists was in Schism If they had perswaded us that which they assay to prove these many years that we are Schismaticks and Hereticks they would then have reason to invite us to make all these Advances and we should be in the wrong to expect them without moving our selves We are not Innovators we are Restorers of the Apostles Religion We have the advantage of Antiquity of Doctrines and Worship in comparison whereof Antiquity of Churches of Edifices of Chairs and Episcopal Seats is nothing at all We are in a perfect Conformity with the Scripture and the Church Apostolick that is better than Conformity with the Church of the Tenth Age and the following The Question then here is only of Fact thus for if we hold the Apostles Doctrine it s certainly their part who have forsaken it to return to us Time cannot prescribe against Truth It 's in vain to say They have for Title a long Possession The more ancient that such Wandrings are the worse they are But that cannot take from us the right of solliciting those People to return Besides it would be more easie for those Gentlemen to return to us than for us to joyn to them for we should not oblige them to any thing that would be against their Conscience seeing we adore only what they adore But we cannot go to them whilst they do serve that which we cannot serve If this Worship of Images this Invocation of Saints this Adoration of the Eucharist are so little a thing and if that should not hinder us from Joyning to them why do they not abandon that little Thing which scandalizes us so greatly and which we reckon to be much Is nothing to be done for Charity Should not Men renounce their own Interest when it s but inconsiderable for our Neighbours Salvation I pretend not that these Reasons will perswade those Gentlemen to abandon their Party and enter into ours Nor that they are capable of doing it So great a Business is not dispatch'd in so little time But it may give us to understand that we have as much right as they to ask for a Reunion without obligation to change any thing and that all those By-ways which have been invented within this little time some while Ways of Prescription then Ways of Prejudices or Prejudgments then Ways of Sweetning are all Ways of Illusion which only hinder us from Treating of the Business to the bottom and from entring into the particulars of the Controversies Because those Gentlemen do not find it commodious to keep that right Method which hath been used hitherto they are searching indirect Ways I do not hope that those Sweetnings of my Lord of Condom and of his Followers will do any great thing for the general Peace of Christianism and for the Repose of particular Persons Yet I cannot but. Essay to get some little Advantage from it by the by Assuredly we should be thankful to my Lord of Condom for his Book Though it should not produce that effect which he hopes for from it to wit the Reunion of both Religions into one One at least naturally it should produce some Peace between both Parties Till now the Roman Catholick and the Protestant have almost considered one another as the two Antipodes of the World Christian At this day they labour to make them return from thence To make our Spirits reapproach they give us Explications tending to make us see that we are not at such a distance as Men were perswaded of These Explications of my Lord of Condom that do reapproach in some parts his Doctrine to ours do also without doubt cause to reapproach our Doctrine to his If Disputes can be annihilated by the Explications of some Terms If our Doctrine be not far distant from that of the Roman Church and do not hurt the Foundation as is insinuated Why then is it made a Phantasm to the People Why then are Men arm'd against us Why so much abhorring for those Men that do not Sin but in that they understand not the Doctrine of the Church Why are the Powers arm'd and the Arm of Flesh Why have heretofore Floods of our Blood been drawn out Why do they cast on us frightful Names of Hereticks and Excommunicate damned Synagogues of Satan and Organs of the Devil Methinks if Men do but deal in good earnest after those Sweetnings men should have a little Sweetness for us or if they continue that rigorous and severe Method against us it seems to be a proof that these Sweetnings were not made with a Spirit of Sincerity but only with a design to procure an Illusion to the Ignorant and to furnish Pretences for those that do seek their Conveniences in the World This is a little advantage which might accrue to us from my Lord of Condoms Book if those of his Party would but be of his mind but I will draw another much more considerable It 's that at the bottom there was never a Book more favourable to the Protestants If we do but consider well the Shape which my Lord of Condom gives to all the controverted Articles this is not a defence of the Dogma's of the Roman Church it 's not an Apology it 's properly an Excuse it 's a Palliative Book if I may so speak Now every man that excuses a Fact a Doctrine or an accused Person by that it self confesses there is some Evil he only tries to make good that the Evil is tolerable This is that whereto my Lord of Condom doth visibly lead us With all his delicate Manners and his Spiritual modelling every Person uninterest'd will conclude that he hath felt some Evil to be within that Church whereto he would have us Reunite and that his Design is only to insinuate That this Evil is tolerable and that it ought not to hinder our Re-union Methinks this appears therein easily by a little attention given thereto for Example if we believe my Lord of Condom An Image hath no other virtue but that of recalling the Memory of the Original there is properly no kind of Homage rendred to it only Men do serve the Original in the presence of the Image Is not that neatly enough to confess That they that go beyond it are most guilty that
Whilst they fell under cover the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti and the Works done for the maintaining thereof Add thereto that they send Post through all Europe under the name of the fournal of the Learned the Praise of those Books which are transported with so much Violence against Moderate Persons It 's true that the Book of my Lord of Condom and the Advertisement which serves for a Preface are also upheld by splendid Approbations But to what purpose That Book enters not into the Particulars it Condemns nothing it Justifies all it Explains It 's true that he grants that there are Practices of Devotion which he doth not approve too much It 's that which is signified by these Words It nothing avails to object against us neither those Practises which they pretend to be general nor the Sense of particular Doctors for without examining those useless Facts it suffices to say in one word that those Practises and Opinions such as they be which will not be conform'd to the Spirit and Decrees of the Council are nothing to the Religion nor to the Body of the Catholick Church They are lost blows which touch nothing because they aim at too many things Those Gentlemen who disapprove in general the Practises which are not conform to the Spirit of the Council of Trent would find work enough if they were obliged to open their mind and to speak clearly They would fear the same Lot with the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti viz. That Rome which hath given its Approbation to that disavowing of some indiscreet Devotions conceived in general terms might nevertheless censure those Censors if they would enter into Particulars and openly condemn what they approve not It 's known in some measure how Jealous the Roman Church is of those Practises which are condemned by honest Men and by moderate Spirits One may judge thereof by the Welcom given to the Bull which the Pope hath published to suppress an Office of the immaculate Conception of the Conception of the Virgin and of many Indulgences That is too publick not to have come to our knowledge It 's certain that if there were a Tribunal Superiour to that of Rome this Tentative had been there vigorously repulsed The Roman Church that could not censure it hath at least despised it This Example may let us see that it 's not sufficient that the Pope should approve or disapprove any thing to make it to be or not to be Though Innocent the Eleventh had approved the Explications of my Lord of Condom it will not be necessarily true that they should be conform'd to the Sense of the Roman Church Those Gentlemen grant that Popes are often but particular Persons and that do not always act under the Character of publick Persons And we may say with some kind of assurance that what was approved by the Pope of this day if Times change but a little might come to be condemned by one of his Successors There want no Examples of the like Contrarieties in the Pieces that flow from this See ARTICLE II. A General Idea of both Religions IT 's time to enter into the Book of my Lord of Condom At his entrance he doth discover his Intention He hopes saith he that his Exposition shall produce two good effects First That many Disputes shall vanish altogether because they are founded upon false Explications of our Creed The Second That the Disputes which shall remain shall not appear like the Principles of the pretended Reform'd so Capital as they at first would make them to be believed and that according to those very Principles they have nothing that hurts the foundations of the Faith That is to say To express the things by other Words that my Lord of Condom will cause both Religions so to reapproach to that Point that one may pass from the Protestant Religion to the Roman without endangering his Salvation in any way although the Protestants do teach nothing but Verities Because that the Controversies that separate the Protestant from the Catholick Roman either are not real or else regard not the foundations of the Faith If that be not the sense of his Words I grant that I see none therein I must ask my Lord of Condom pardon but I cannot forbear to tell him that I find not this design to be honest it is to lead Men to betray Truth and their Consciences The Principle which he lays is of good use for his Church in France where Roman Religion is predominant which hath on her side all Worldly advantages But it 's to be feared that he will carry on his Catholick to renounce easily their Religion in England Holland Denmark Swedland and in other places where Charges and Advantages are distributed by the Protestants For one needs not be extreamly turn'd to the side of Libertinism for to say If Men can pass without Risk from the Protestant Religion though they believe it to be true to the Catholick Religion acknowledging therein some defects one may also without danger pass from the Catholick Religion to the Protestant Religion in believing this moderately bad We must tell the Truth it 's a dangerous Snare that is laid for Us. The Author of the Advertisement doth conjure Protestants by Charity which is God himself and by the Name of Christians which is common to us to judge no more of the Catholick Doctrine by what is told them in their Sermons but by this Exposition But I conjure them by the Care they ought to have of their Salvation to beware of the Illusions that are prepared for them and not to feek here for Pretences when they shall be tempted to quit a Religion hated and disfavoured to follow that which opens the Way to all Preferments There is no less Concerns in this affair than Eternal damnation God who will prove all false Doctrines by the Fire of his Word and those that shall have followed them by that of his terrible Judgment cannot be deceived by Equivocations nor by imperfect Expositions I demand of them a little Sincerity a little Love for their Salvation and a moderate good Sense with those one may easily judge whether both Religions be so near to each other that they differ not but by Disputes which may be caused to vanish in explaining some Terms or by Opinions that hurt not the foundations of Faith I will first give a general Idea both of the One and of the other I 'le suppose an Infidel who seeks for Religion in the several Sects which are among the Christians He enters into the Churches of the Roman Catholicks he sees them filled with Pictures and those Images themselves magnificently adorn'd put into the most Sacred places having at their feet many Suppliants Persons prostrate before them kissing them embracing their knees burning Torches before them or Wax Candles incensing them and carrying them about in pompous Processions In those Churches also doth
Oath of Fidelity of transporting their Kingdoms to others and exercising in general all Actions of that Power which is attributed to him by the Canon Law It is clear then I must regard the Pope not by what the French say of him but in what he is and what he doth Men may say that a thing should be white when it is black and blacks others that changes nothing therein Besides that I see not why they could not regard him in France under the Character they give him in France it self The Council of Lateran wherein the Pope was called The Divine Majesty Vice-â—od King of Kings puts himself above all Councils is printed in France with the Kings Priviledge under the di ection of the Fathers Labbé and Cossart without any Correctiff Can France have lost the Memory of that terrible Harangue which was made in the grand Convention of the States 1615. by Cardinal Perron in the Name of all the Clergy of the Kingdom They would have passed an Ordinance in those States That no Subject under any Pretence could be dispensed from the Oath of Fidelity The Gallican Church by the Mouth of a French Cardinal opposed it and attributed to the Pope all that excess of Power that frights us How after that can any Man boast of the Sense of the Gallican Church But happily pretend they That Innocent the Eleventh who holds now the Seat hath renounced to all those Pretences that so offend us and hath reduced himself to the Moderation of the Gallican Church because he approves by a Brief Monsieur de Condom s Book and that Book of Monsieur de Condom saith That there are things whereof they Dispute in the Schools which the Ministers cease not to alledge to render that Puissance odious but that it is not necessary to speak thereof seeing they are not of the Catholick Faith In Conscience can Men believe that the Court of Rome by the touch of a Pen and without being either forc'd or sollicited had renounced all her magnificent Pretences to all those Priviledges which they have acquired by the effusion of so much Blood and for which they were like to have overthrown all during the Sitting of the Council of Trent in the fear they had that it was intended to have a stroak at them These Disputes of the Schools in the Sense of the Court of Rome are but the Nice Trifles wherein Canonists agree not although in the sight of my Lord of Condom they are possibly what we regard as Capital Men know how to find a commodious Sense in Terms more difficult to turns and the Court of Rome finds enough to satisfie themselves in these Words of Monsieur de Condom That Men ought to render to the Pope the Submission and Obedience which the Holy Councils have always taught the Faithful The two last of those Holy Councils are the Fifth of Lateran which is Counted General and that of Trent for which my Lord of Condom hath so great a respect Those two Councils carry the Popes Authority as far as it can go at least it will not be a Dispute of Schools to know whether they may call the Pope Our holy Lord for the Council of Trent seldom calls him otherwise although the Apostles have not called the Son of God but Our Lord simply It must neither be a Dispute of the Schools to know whether the Pope be Superiour to the Council for the Council of Trent submitted so fully to him that they did nothing withut his Order and seeing they proposed nothing but by the Pope Proponentibus legatis since it declared not to pretend to touch the Authority of the Holy See nor submit him to their Canons and since it demanded from the Pope the Confirmation of all their Decrees and indeed the Pope is at this day so far Master of this Council that he Dispenses against all their Canons After all this how can they invite us to re-enter into the Roman Church whilst such a Power shall subsist We that pretend That the Power of Pastours is a Pure Ministry We that believe That Jesus Christ hath not left them any Jurisdiction on Consciences We that acknowledge no other Universal Head of the Church but Jesus Christ We that believe That Humility is of the Essence of the Ministry Evangelical We that ascribe no Adoration nor Divine Majesty but to GOD ARTICLE XVII Of the Points which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten Of the Worship in an Vnknown Tongue Of the Multitude of Ceremonies Of Masses without Communicants Of forced Celibat I Do heartily consent to what Monsieur de Condem wishes to lay apart divers Questions that we regard not as a lawful Subject of Rupture but we cannot advance our Complaisance so far as to confess all that he hath left and whereof he hath not spoken be of this Number I could add divers Points which are most Essential and which Justifie our Separation but I confine my self to Four that I may not be accused to make Subjects of Separation where there are none I. The First is the Necessity which the Roman Church hath imposed on her self to have their Service in the Latin Tongue which is not understood of the People I know not why Monsieur de Condom doth not take away the Scruples that we could have thereon but we are obliged in Conscience to advertize them that that alone would be capable of hindring us from re-entring into the Roman Church though there were nothing else to stay us because that nothing is more opposed to the Intention of Jesus Christ who hath instituted his Service with purpose that his People might be Edified thereby Although they could say the best and holiest things in the World that could serve for nothing seeing that the Spirit and the Heart that could not understand them could not be edified thereby II. The Second thing which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten is the multitude of Ceremonies and it is an Article that we cannot pass any more than the others that makes an Essential difference between Religions Judaism and Christianism differ Essentially and only by that they call us to another Yoke like to that of the Jewish Church We do not believe we can suffer it with a good Conscience I have considered those Ceremonies as opposed to the true Service of God because the most are destined to honour Saints Images Relicks the Sacrament of the Eucharist and other Creatures At present I consider only their Number and their Uselesness and under that regard I maintain that they are absolutely opposed to the Spirit of Christianism We must not imagine that it is but a small ill to be useless in matter of Religion The Gospel condemns to the Fire the Useless Servant and punishes with Eternal Pains Unfruitful Works Let them not say That at the most those Ceremonies are Useless That which doth not serve in Religion doth much hurt Those Ceremonies are not come from a good place for the most