vtility of Prayer to Saints aduiseth vs to pray in the same spirit of charity and according to that order of fraternall society which moues vs to request the succors of our bretheren liuing vpon the earth and the Catechisme of the Councel of Trent concludeth of this doctrine that if the quality of Mediator which the holy Scripture attributeth to CHRIST IESVS did receiue any preiudice by the intercession of Saints who reigne with God almighty that it would haue the same diminution by the offices and mediations of the faithfull who are liuing with us This Catechisme informeth vs clearly of the extreame difference between the manner of our imploring the succour of God that of our solliciting the contributions of the Saints for thus it says We pray to God either to giue vs good things or to deliuer vs from ill but by reason the Saints are more acceptable to him then we our selfs we request of them their protection sue to them they would obteyn for vs these things we stand in need of And hence it is that we vse two kinds of prayer very different since when we address to God the proper style is HAVE PITTY ON VS BEPLEASED TO HARKEN TO VS but we account it sufficient when we recurr to Saints to beseech them to PRAY FOR VS Whereby we must vnderstand that in what termes soeuer the prayers we offer to Saints are styled the intention of the Church of the Supplicants reduceth them alwayes vnto this forme as the same Catechisme confirmeth in the processe of that discourse But it will not be amisse to consider the words themselfs of the Councel which intending to prescribe to the Bishops in what manner they should speake of the inuocacation of Saints obligeth them to teach that the Saints who reigne with CHRIST IESVS offer to God their prayers for men that it is good and vsefull to inuoke them by way of supplication and to haue recourse to their succours assistances to obtayne of God his benefits through his Sonne our Lord CHRIST IESVS who alone is our Sauiour Redeemer And in order to this declaration the Councel condemneth those who teach a contrary doctrine whereby it is euident that to inuoke the Saints according to the intent of this Councel is to resort to their prayers for the obteyning the blessings and benefits of God by CHRIST IESVS And in truth what we obteyne by the interuention of Saints we acquire only by CHRIST IESVS and in his name since the Saintsthemselfs intercede but by CHRIST IESVS and obteyne their graunts but in his name This is the Faith of the Catholique Church wh ch the Councel of Trent hath cleerly explained in few words after which euidence we cannot conceaue how it can be obiected that we depart remoue our selfs from CHRIST IESVS when we supplicate his members which are also ours his children who are our brothers and his Saints who are our first fruits to ioyne their prayers to ours offering them both to our common Master in the name of our common Mediator The same Councel explaines cleerly in few words the meaning of the Church when it offers to God the holy sacrifice to honor the memory of the Saints That honor we render them in the act of Sacrifice consists in mentioning their names as of the faithfull seruants of God in the prayers we addresse to him thankes-giuings and prayses for the victories they haue obteyned and in humbly mouing his condescending in our fauor by their Intercessions S. Augustin hath declared 1200 years past that none ought to conceiue the Sacrifice as offered to the holy Martyrs although by the custome in practise euen in those tymes vniuersally by the Church the Sacrifice was offered vpon their holy bodies vnto their memories that is to be vnderstood before the places wherein their pretious Reliques were conserued and the same father sayth further that commemoration was made of the Martyrs at the holy table at the celebration of the Sacrifice not intending to pray for them as we doe for other dead but rather in order to their praying for vs. I alledge the perswasion of this holy Bishop by reason the Councel of Trent vseth almost the same words to instruct the faithfull that the Church offers not the Sacrifice vnto the Saints but to God alone who hath crown'd them and that the Priest doth not adresse himself to S. Peter or S. Paul saying I OFFER VNTO YOV THIS SACRIFICE but praysing God for their victories he implores their assistance to the end that they whose Commemoration we celebrate vpon Earth may be moued to pray for vs in Heauen This is the manner wherein we honour the Saints to obteyne graces and benefits from God by their Mediation and the cheifest of those fauors we hope to procure is that of being inabled for their imitation to which we are excited by contemplation of their admirable precedents and by the honour we pay in the presence of God to their blessed memories Whosoeuer shall rightly consider the doctrine we haue proposed will be forced to auowe that as we substract from God none of the perfections peculiar to his infinite essence so we doe not ascribe to Creatures any of those properties or operations the which can not sort but with God alone which doth so absolutely distinguish us from Idolaters that we can not conceiue vpon what ground they lay that imputation And when the Pretended Reformers obiect that in our addressing our prayer to Saints and in honouring them as if they were present all ouer the earth we attribute to them a kind of Immensity or at least the knowledge of the secret of harts which appears reserued singly to God by so many testimonies of the Scripture in this obiection they doe not apprehend our doctrine right for in fine abstracting from the ground we may haue to attribute to the Saints some certain degree of knowledge of such occurrencies as passe amongst vs or euen of our secret thoughts it is euident that it is no eleuation of the creature transcending its condition to affirme that it hath some notion of things by the light which God infuseth by his communication The example of the Prophets attests this clearly God hauing vouchsafed to discouer to them future euents although they seeme to be reserued much more specially to the Omniscience of God But besides this neuer any Catholique conceiued that the Saints by themselues did discerne our wants nor euen the desires for which we addresse particular prayers The Church is content to teach concurrently with all Antiquity that such prayers are very beneficiall to those who practise them whether the Saints apprehend them by the ministery commerce of Angels which according to the profession of the Church know what passeth amongst vs as being appointed by God's order as ministring spirits to concurre in the worke of our Saluation or be it that God himself acquainteth them with our
resembled to the two great pillars of brasse call'd Booz and Iachin supporting the gates of the Temple of Salomon wherefore these two points are sett at their full length solidly founded and fairely polished by a cleer smoothing and explication of the seeming hardenes of those proposalls which were taken as a hard saying coming euen out of CHRIST'S own mouth but if rightly vnderstood following this Author 's faire exposition they will be acknowleged as our Sauiour himself attested of them Verba quae ego locutus sum vobis Spiritus vita sunt The words that I haue spoke vnto you they are Spirit and they are life And can there be imagined a greater Blessing next to the Beatifical Vision then the Reall Participation of the Body and Blood of our Divine Sauiour IESVS-CHRIST Me thinks that which would haue bin the wish of all zealous Christians if it had not bin the free guift and gratification of God is this Reall Partaking euen in this life of this blessed cōmunication by which we may glory with S. Peter that by this precious promise we are made partakers of the Diuine Nature And surely I haue not seen any worke vpon this designe wherein these two corner-stones of the Catholique Church haue a more solid foundation or that affords a more easy comprehension of these two sublime mysteries By this motiue I haue bin perswaded to passe into my Country this forrein commodity which like a delicate wine of the same place may loose somewhat of the natural Spirit quicknes by the transport yet I may presume that it retaineth all these healthfull and cordiall qualities it had in the natiue production And hauing heretofore presented my Country in their seuerall seasons Spring-Flowers and other Summer-Fruits as the Parfumes of Poesy and the Reflection of Morality now in this winter of my age I transport to my nation this Riper and more wholesome fruit the feeding whereon contrary to the effect denounced against the forbidden fruite may produce life euerlasting Vpon which hope I may summon my Country in that call of our Lord IESVS commanded to be written by S. Iohn He that hath eares to heare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches for that with greife I say it the reproach of the Prophet Esay may be so truly applied to our Nation Behold you kindle a fire and compasse your selues about with sparkes and walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you haue kindled The strange diuersity of Sects and Severall professions of Religion doth too euidently appropriate this reproach of the Prophet wherefor the rest of my life shall be assigned to sollicite God for the blessing of the Primitiue Christians vpon our so deuided Country to be Cor Vnum and Via Vna One Hart One Way This Vnity was the most feruent prayer we find that our Sauiour euer made to his Father for his Church left vpon earth that they may be One as we are One. In order to some contribution to this Blessed Vnion I haue made this present to my Country and with great sense of Hart for whose Good Happinesse the Syncerity of my zeale is such that I perswade my self I may expresse it in S. Paul's offer for his Conuerts Ego autem libentissimè impendam Superimpendar ipse pro animabus vestris I most gladly will bestow and will my selfe moreouer be bestow'd for your soules And now giue me leaue to closevp this address to my Country in the words of our Lord IESVS which S. Iohn hear'd directed to the Bishop of Ephesus Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe thy first workes For which blessed resipiscence shall be zealously offer'd all the days of my life the best of all the Religious offices and priuate deuotions of DEARE COVNTREYMEN Your most humbly deuoted seruant W A. MONTAGV Permis d' imprimer fait ce 12. Auril 1672. DE LA REYNIE AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIQVE CHVRCH VPON THE POINTS OF Controversie AFTER more then a whole Age's contestation with those of the Pretended-Reformed Religion the matters vpon which they have grounded their breach may be conceiued sufficiently explayned and their minds disposed to a right vnderstanding of the Catholique Churche's Perswasions so that it seemes we can doe nothing better then propose them sincerely and distinguish them from those which have bin wrongfully imputed for in effect I haue observed in diuers occurrencyes that the auersion those persons expresse for the most part of our Doctrines is deriued from the false ideas that they haue figured of our tenents and most commonly drawn from certain expressions which offend them so much as resting at first sight vpon them they neuer passe forward to the enquiry of the grounds of the matter Whereupon I haue conceiued nothing could be more vsefull then to explaine to them what the Church hath defined in the Councel of Trent touching those points which remoue them the most from our Communion I will not therefore stay vpon what they commonly obiect to our priuate Doctors or vpon those matters which are neither inioyned nor vniuersally accepted since all parties agree and Mr Daille him'self that it is vnreasonable to impute the perswasions of particular persons vnto a whole body and he goes further confessing that one ought not to make a separation but vpon Articles Authentically established and whereof all sorts of persons are obliged vnto the Beleefe obseruation I will not therefore fix vpon any but the decrees of the Councel of Trent since it is there the Church speakes Decisiuely of the matters in question and what I shall offer to facilitate the right vnderstanding of those Decisions is approued by the same Church and shall appear manifestly conformable to the Doctrine of that holy Councel This explication of Doctrine will produce two good effects the first that diuers disputes will entierly vanish by reason they will be discerned as grounded meerly vpō wrong explications of our Beleefe the second the disputes remaining will not appear euen according to the principles of the Pretended-Reformers so capitall as they at first sight haue sought to qualify them and that euen by their owne principles they contein nothing that offendeth the grounds of Faith And to begin with these Fundamētall articles of Christian Faith the Pretended-Reformes must needs confess that they are beleeued and professed in the Catholique Church If they state them in the beleefe of adoring one single God Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and the confiding in God only by his sonne incarnate crucified and raysed from the dead for us they are conuinced by their own conscience that we protest the same Doctrine and if they will add the other Articles contayned in the Apostles Creed they doubt as little of our professing them intierly without exception and doe not question our hauing a pure and right vnderstanding of them Mons
desires by a speciall reuelation or be it that God reueileth to them that secret in his diuine essence wherein all truths are comprehended so that the Church vpon these different manners hath not determined by which of them God is pleased to make this communication to his Saints But by what means soeuer this knowledge is imparted it is very certain that it is farr from ascribing to the creature any of the diuine perfections as the Idolaters did since it doth not permit our attributing euen to the greatest Saints any degree of excellence which is not deriued from God nor acceptablenesse in his eyes but as deriued from their virtues nor any virtue but what is the free guift of Grace nor any information of humane passages but such as God is pleased to communicate nor any capacity to assist vs but only by their prayers nor in fine any felicity but by a perfect submission and conformity to the diuine pleasure It is therefore most certain that vpon penetration into our interior sentiments directed to the Saints it will be euident that we doe not raise them aboue the condition of Creatures and from this ground one ought to be possess'd of the true nature of that honour and reuerence which is intended by our exterior demonstrations the apparent religious offices being appointed to testify the interior sentiments of our minds But by reason that the honour which the Church offers to Saints appeareth most notoriously before their Images and their holy Reliques it is requisite to explaine the Churches syncere doctrine in this Religious Act. In point of Images the Councel of Trent forbids expressely to beleeue any Diuinity or power in them for which we ought to reuerence them or to sue for any fauor or to place any confidence in them and ordains that all the honour should relate to the Originalls they represent All these words of the Councel are so many characters which serue to distinguish vs from Idolaters since we are so farr from beleeuing with them any Diuinity residing in the Images as we attribute no virtue to them but this of exciting in vs the remembrance of their originalls Vpon this it is that the honour we render to Images is grounded for example can one deny that the figure of IESVS-CHRIST crucified when we behold it doth not excite a more liuely remembrance of him who loued vs so as to deliuer himself vp to death for vs As long as the present Image possessing our eyes entertains so pretious a notion in our minds we are moued to expresse by some exterior markes the feruor and extent of our gratitude and we declare by our humiliation before the Image how profound our submission is respectiue to the Original Wherefore speaking strictly according to the style of the Church when we render any honour to the Image of an Apostle or Martyr our ayme is not so much to honour the Image as the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image To this purpose the Roman Pontificall declareth and the Councell of Trent expresseth the same intent when it saith that the honour we render to Images is so referr'd to the Originalls that by the means of the Images we kisse and before which we kneele we adore CHRIST IESVS and honour those Saints which they represent to vs. In fine we cleerly discerne in what Spirit the Church honoureth Images by the honour it renders the holy Crosse or the booke of the Gospel All the world sees cleerly that before the Crosse the Church adoreth him who did beare our sinn's vpon that wood and that when her children bow their heads before the bookes of the Gospel when they stand vp in respect at theyr passing by them and kisse them reuerently all this honour terminateth in the Eternall Verity which is exposed to vs by that Instrument There must then be very little equity in calling Idolatry that Religious sentiment which moueth vs to vncouer and bow our heads before the Images of the Crosse in reflection vpon him who was crucyfi'd for our sakes and one must be starke blinde not to discerne the extreame difference between those who confided in Idols vpon this opinion that some Diuinity or some virtue was at is were fastned vnto them and them who professe as we doe that they intend not to make any vse of Images but simply to raise their spirit vp to heaven with the intent of honouring CHRIST IESVS or his Saints and in them God himself who is the author of all grace and Sanctification Vnder the same notion the honour we pay to Reliques is to be apprehended following the stepps of the primitiue Ages and if our Aduersaries did reflect that we consider the bodies of Saints as hauing bin victimes to God either by Martyrdome or Pennance they would not conceiue that the honour we render them vpon this motiue can depart or remoue vs from that we owe to God himself And we may say in generall that if they would comprehend in what manner the affection we beare to some one body extendeth without deuiding it self to his children to his freinds and successiuely by degrees to all that represents that person to all that remains of him or any thing that receiueth the memory of him if they did comprehend that our honouring makes such a progress since in effect our honouring is nothing else but loue mixt with feare and respect in fine if they did comprehend that all the exterior worship of the Catholique Church riseth and springeth in God himself and that it reuerts thither they would neuer suspect that those Religious acts which God alone doth animate could provoke his iealousy They would perceiue the quite contrary and find that if God as iealous as he is of the loue of men doth not account that we deuide between him and the Creature when we loue our Neighbour for his sake the same God as iealous as he is of the duties of his seruants doth not conceiue them to share or part the worship which they owe to him alone when from the motiue of the dutys they owe him they honour those who haue bin honoured by himself Yet true it is that as the sensible markes of reuerence are not all of absolute necessity the Church without any alteration in the Doctrine may haue extended more or lesse those exterior practises suting to the diuersity of times places and other occurrencies not intending that her children should be seruilly subiected to visible matters but only that they might be excited and as it were aduertised by their means to apply themselfs to God to offer him in spirit and truth that reasonable and due seruice he expecteth from his creatures It may easily be discerned by this Doctrine with how much truth I have asserted that a great part of our Controversies would vanish by an only right vnderstanding of termes if these were discussed with Charity and if our Aduersaries did consider calmely the precedent explications
which comprehend the expresse Doctrine of the Councel of Trent they would forbeare to obiect to vs that we injure the Mediation of CHRIST IESVS and that we inuoke Saints adore Images in a manner peculiar to God himself It is granted by reason that in some sense Inuocation Adoration and the name of Mediator are competent only to God and CHRIST JESVS that it is easy by a perverse vse of those termes to traduce our Doctrine and render it odious but if they are ingenuously receiued in that sense we haue exhibited these obiections loose all their force and if there remayne in the minds of the Pretended Reformers any lesse important difficultyes naturall equity and syncerity will oblige them to auowe themselues satisfy'd in the principall exceptions Besides this there is nothing more vniust then to charge the Church with the stating of all piety in this devotion to Saints since as we haue already euinced the Councel of Trent iudgeth it sufficient to informe and teach Catholiques that this practise is Good Vsefull without advancing it further so that the Churches intent is to condemn such as reiect this practise either by Contempt or Misconstruction and the Church is obliged to condemn them by reason that she ought not to indure the condemning of salutary and usefull practises nor that a Doctrine which all Antiquity hath authorised should be reiected by the Nouellists Doctors The matter of iustification will manifest yet a greater light how many difficulties may be avoyded by a syncere exposition of our opinions Those who are never so little acquainted with the history of the Pretended Reformation can not be ignorant that those who were the first Authors of it did propose this Article to all the world as the principall and as it were the most essentiall ground of their separation so that this seemes the most necessary point to be rightly understood First we beleeve that our sinns are forgiuen freely by the divine mercy for JESVS-CHRIST'S sake these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent which addeth further that we are said to be iustified freely because none of those things which precede our iustification either our faith or our works can merit this grace And by reason the holy scripture explains to us the remission of our sinns expressing it some times by saying that God couers them and others that he takes them quite away and effaceth them by the grace of the holy Ghost which renders vs new creatures we conceiue that we are to combine all these expressions to forme a compleate Idea or notion of the iustification of a sinner we doe therefore beleeue that our sinns are not only couered but intirely effaced by the blood of CHRIST IESVS and by the grace by which we are regenerated and this perswasion is so farr from detracting from that image we ought to frame of the merit of that blood as quite contrary it indeareth and eleuateth the value of it for by this meanes the righteousnes of Christ is not simply imputed but actually imparted to the faithfull by the operation of the holy Ghost in so much as they are not only imputed but euen rendered righteous by the grace of Christ. If our righteousnes were only in the sight of man it would not be the operation of the holy Ghost it must then be iustice euen before God since it is God himself who produceth it in vs by an effusion of his charity vpon our harts It is notwithstanding but too true that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and we all offend in many things Wherefore albeit our righteousnes be a true one by the infusion of Charity yet is it no perfect one by reason of the combat between it our concupiscence so that the sighing and sorrowing of a soule repenting her sinns performes the most necessary duty of Christian righteousnes which obligeth vs to confesse with S. Augustin that our righteousnes in this life consists rather in the remission of our sinns then in the perfection of our virtues Wherefore as to the point of Merit imputed to our workes the Catholique Church teacheth that Eternall life ought to be proposed to the children of God both as a Grace mercifully promised by the meanes of our Sauior IESVS CHRIST and as a Reward which is faithfully rendred to their good workes and to their deserts in virtue of that promise these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent but least the pride of humane nature should be flattered by the opinion of a persuming Merit the same Councel determineth that all the worth and value of Christian good workes is deriued from that sanctifying grace which is freely conferr'd vpon vs in the name of CHRIST JESVS and that is an effect of the continuall influence of that diuine head vpon his depending members True it is indeed that the exhortations the promises the menaces and reproaches of the Gospel doe declare sufficiently that we are to worke our saluation by the motion actings of our own wills concurring with the Grace of God which assists vs but it is a fixt principle that free will can performe nothing in order to Eternall beatitude but by the same degrees it is moued and eleuated by the holy Ghost Whereupon the Church knowing that it is the holy spirit which worketh in vs by his Grace all the good we doe she ought to rest perswaded that the good workes of the faithfull are very acceptable to God of great estimation in his sight and she doth rightfully vse the terme of Merit concurrently with all Christian Antiquity cheefly to signify the value dignity of our workes which we performe by the motion of his Grace But by reason all their sanctity is deriued from God who workes them in vs the same Church hath receiued from the Councel of Trent as the Doctrine of the Catholique Faith this saying of S. August that God crowns his own Gifts when he crowns the Merits of his seruants We intreate all such as loue truth peace to be pleased to read the whole context of the Councel of Trent's words that they once be disabused and deliuered from those wrong impressions which are suggested to them of our Docctrine Notwithstanding we discerne cleerly say the fathers of that Councel that the holy scriptures esteeme so much Good woorks that IESVS-CHRIST himself promiseth that a cupp of cold water giuen a poor body shall not want its reward and that the Apostle declareth that a moment of light payne suffered in this world shall produce an Eternall weight of glory yet God forbid that a Christian should trust glory in himself and not in our Lord whose goodness towards Man is so aboundant that he allowes his own Guifts to them to be accounted their Merits This Doctrine is spread through the whole Councel which teacheth in an other session that we who are not sufficient to doe
whereby he is pleased to carry on our deliuerance in that order his wisedome hath designed for our happinesse and for a more euident manifestation of his own Iustice and Mercy And for the like reason we ought not to maruaile if he who hath giuen vs so easy a deliuery by Baptisme becomes more seuere to vs after we haue violated our holy promises made vpon that remission and it is not only iust but euen beneficial to vs that God forgiving vs the sin and remitting the Eternal punishment we haue incurr'd should impose some temporal penalty to reteyn vs within our dutyes least we being deliuered too soone from the bonds of his iustice we should abandon our selues vnto a temerarious confidence abusing the facility of his Indulgence It is therefore in order to our discharging that obligation that we are subiected to some workes of Pennance which we are bound to perfome in the spirit of humility repentance and the necessity of these satisfactory workes was the motiue that induced the primitiue Church to impose vpon Penitents those pennances called Canonical So that when the Church inflicteth vpon sinners paynfull laborious iniunctions and they vndergoe them with humility that act we call Satisfaction and when either in regard of the zeale and feruor of the Penitent or other good workes performed which the Church hath prescribed she releaseth some part of the Pennance which was owing this remission is call'd Indulgence The Councel of Trent proposeth no more to our Faith then this in point of Indulgences that the power of granting them hath bin giuen the Church by CHRIST IESVS and that the vse of them is very beneficial whereunto the Councel addeth that the grant of them ought to be dispensed with caution least the Ecclesiasticall discipline should be weakned and eneruated by an excessiue facility which aduice declareth that the manner of disposing of Indulgences appertaineth to Church-discipline Such as depart out of this world in Grace Charity but yet owing those sufferances which the Diuine Justice hath reserued discharge them in the next life and this perswasion hath obliged all the Christian Antiquity to offer prayers almes and sacrifices for the faithfull departed in the peace and communion of the Church with an assured faith that such sufferers may be eased by these applications this is what the Councel of Trent proposeth to be beleeued concerning the soules deteyned in Purgatory without determining the special manner of their paines or declaring any thing vpon many the like debates vpon which the holy Councel aduiseth a great referuednes blaming such as expose what is not only vncertain but may be vnfound This is the holy and the harmelesse Doctrine of the Catholique Church in point of Satisfactions from the mis-construction whereof so many wrongfull imputations have bin cast vpon her and if after this explanation the Pretended-Reformers doe obiect to vs the detracting from the satisfaction made by IESVS-CHRIST they must needs haue forgot what we haue professed to them that our Saviour hath pay'd the entire price of our Redemption and that there is nothing wanting in the value since it is in it self infinite and that the reservation of those payns we have asserted proceeds not from any disproportion in this payment but from a certain order Christ hath designed to restraine vs by iust apprehensiōs and healthfull discipline And in cafe they should yet obiect to vs the beleefe that we are sufficient of our selues to satisfy for some part of the paine due to our sinns we may reply with great assurance that the contrary is manifested by those maximes we haue established since they proclaime cleerly that our whole Saluation is but a worke of Grace Mercy that what we act by the Grace of God is no lesse to be ascribed to him then what he effecteth singly by his absolute pleasure and in fine whatsoeuer we present him belongs no lesse to him then what he freely bestows vpon vs to which we must adioyne in conformity to the whole ancient Church this profession that what we terme Satisfaction is but in effect an application of the infinite Satisfaction pay'd by CHRIST IESVS This same consideration ought to appease those who seeme offended when we affirme that fraternal charity and the Communion of Saints is so acceptable to God that he doth often receaue euen the Satisfactions we offer one for another It seemes these Pretending Reformers doe not conceaue how intirely whatsoeuer we are belongs to God nor how much all those regards which his goodnes produceth in fauour of the faithful who are members of CHRIST IESVS are necessarily relating to that Divine head But surely such as haue read and considered that God himself inspired into his servants the zeale of afflicting themselues by fastings and other mortifications not only for their own sinns but for those also of the whole land where they liued wil not wonder if we affirme that God being moved by the pleasure he takes to gratify those he vouchsafeth to call his friends doth mercifully accept the humble Sacrifice of their voluntary mortifications for an abatement of those punishments he had designed for his criminal poeple which declareth that being satisfyed by one part he will be softned sweetned to the other honouring by this means his sonne CHRIST IESVS in the communion of his members and in the holy society of his mystical body The order of our Doctrine requireth that we expose in the next place that of the Sacraments by which the merits of our Sauiour CHRIST are apply'd vnto vs. And since the disputes we haue in relation to them excepting that of the Eucharist or Communion are not persued with much heate we will in the first place cleare in few words the principal difficulties which are obiected concerning the other Sacraments reserving that of the Blessed Sacrament for the last as the most important The Sacraments of the new Alliance are not simply holy signes which doe but signify the Grace of CHRIST nor only seales which confirme it but also instuments of the holy spirit which serve to apply it vnto vs and which confer Grace by the virtue of the words pronounced and the exteriour action apply'd vnto vs in case we interpose no impediment by our own indisposition When God annexeth so great a Grace vnto exteriour signes which in their own nature hold no proportion with so admirable effects he signifieth to vs cleerly that besides what we can confer to it by our interiour contribution there is required a special intervention of the holy spirit to effect our sanctification and a singular application of our Sauiour's merits which are imparted to vs by the Sacraments So that this Doctrine can not be reiected without iniuring the Merits of CHRIST JESVS and detracting from the efficacy of the diuine power in our Regeneration We acknowledg seauen signes or sacred ceremonies established by CHRIST JESVS as the ordinary meanes instruments of sanctification and
same name Neuerthelesse our Faith being attentiue to his word who effecteth what euer he pleaseth in heauen and on earth doth acknowledg in this case no other Substance remaining but that which is designed by the same word viz the proper Body and Blood of CHRIST IESVS into which the Bread and the Wine are changed which is what we terme TRANSVBSTANTIATION And notwithstanding this yet the Reality which the Eucharist contains in regard of the interiour part is no impediment to the being a Signe in respect of what it retains of exteriour and sensible but yet a Signe of such a nature as is so farre from excluding a Reality as it carieth it of necessity along with it since in effect this speech This is my Body being pronounced vpon the matter CHRIST IESVS hath chosen is an assured signe that he is Present and although the matters seeme to our senses to remayne the same yet our spirit iudgeth otherwise of them then it would doe if a superiour Authority did not interuene so that although those species and a certaine sequence of naturall impressions which are made on our bodies are vsed to suggest to vs the Substance of Bread Wine yet in this case his Authority whome we beleeue intirely preuailes so much vpon vs that the same species begin to designe to vs an other Substance for we beleeue CHRIST who sayth that which we take and that which we eate is his Body and such is the efficacy of his word as it keeps vs from ascribing to the Substance of Bread these exteriour appearances and moueth vs to referr them to the Body of CHRIST being present vnder them so that the presence of so Adorable an obiect being once ascertain'd to vs by this signe we make no question of offring to it our Adorations I doe not enter into the point of Adoration by reason that the most learned and sober of our Aduersaries haue long since granted vs that the presence of CHRIST IESVS in the Eucharist ought to impose Adoration vpon those who are of that perswasion In fine being once conuinced that the omnipotent words of the sonne of God effect whatsoeuer they pronounce we beleeue vpon good grounds that in the last Supper they produced their effect as soone as they were vttered and vpon a necessary consequence we acknowledg the Reall presence of the Body before our receauing it These preceeding points being supposed the Sacrifice which we assert and maintain in the Eucharist retayns no longer any particular difficulty We haue obserued two actions in this Mystery which cease not to be distinct although the one relateth to the other the first is the Consecration by which the Bread and Wine are changed into the Body and Blood the second is the Eating by which we communicate and partake of them In the Consecration the Body and Blood are mystically separated by reason that CHRIST IESVS said seuerally This is my Body This is my Blood the which includeth a liuely and effectuall representation of the violent death he suffered And so the sonne of God is sett vpon the holy table by vertue of those words couered with signes that represent his death This is what is effected by Consecration and this Religious act carieth with it the protestation of the Soueragnity of God by reason that CHRIST IESVS being present reneweth and in some sort perpetuates the memory of his obedience euen to the death of the Crosse so that indeed there is nothing wanting here towards the rendring it a True Sacrifice Without all question this Religious act as it is distinct from that of the Communion must needs be of it self acceptable to God and must inuite him to looke vpon vs with a more fauorable and propitious eye by reason it presenteth to his sight the voluntary death which his wellbeloued sonne hath suffer'd for sinners or rather replaceth before his eyes euen his own sonne vnder the signes of that death whereby he hath bin appeased and reconciled to Man All Christians confesse that the single presēce of CHRIST IESVS is a most powerfull manner of Intercession before God for all mankind according to this saying of the Apostle CHRIST IESVS presenteth himself and appeareth for vs before the face of God and thereupon we beleeue that CHRIST IESVS being present vpon the holy table in this figure of death intercedeth for vs and representeth continually to his Father the death he hath suffered for his Church It is in this sense we affirme that IESVS-CHRIST offereth himself for vs to God in the Eucharist and in this manner it is we conceaue that this Oblation inuiteth God to become more fauorable and propitious to vs and for this reason we call it Propitiatorie When we reflect vpon what CHRIST IESVS worketh in this mystery and when we looke vpon him by our Faith as actually present vpon the holy table with the signes of death we ioine our selues to him in that estate and we present him to God as our only Victime and as our sole Propitiator by the merit of his Blood protesting that we haue nothing to offer vnto God but IESVS-CHRIST and the infinite merit of his death We consecrate all our prayers by this Diuine Oblation and by our presenting CHRIST IESVS to God we are taught to offer vp our selues at the same time to the Diuine Maiesty in him and by him as liuing Sacrifices Such is the Sacrifice of Christians and infinitely differing from that which was practised in the Law being a Spirituall Sacrifice worthy of the New Couenant wherein the presence of the Victime is not perceaued but by Faith where the word of God is the instrument that separateth Mystically the Body the Blood and cōsequently where the Blood is shed but Mystically and where death interueneth but by Representation and yet a most Reall True Sacrifice for this reason that CHRIST JESVS is truly contained and presented to God in it vnder this figure of death and therefore a Sacrifice also of Commemoration which is so farre though obiected from parting loosening vs from our application to the Sacrifice of the Crosse as it fixeth vs the faster by all its circūstances vnto it since it doth not only relate intirely vnto it but in effect it hath neither being nor subsistance but by this relation from whence it deriueth all the virtue it contains This is the expresse Doctrine of the Catholique Church in the Councel of Trent which teacheth that this Sacrifice is instituted only to the intent of representing that which was once perfected vpon the Crosse and to preserue the Memory of it vnto the end of all ages and apply vnto vs that sauing virtue for the forgiuenes of sinns which we dayly commit Wherefore so farre we are from beleeving that somewhat is wanting to the Sacrifice of the Crosse as quite contrary the Church holds that it was so perfect and so fully sufficient as all which followes it is but ordain'd in order to the
AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIQUE CHURCH IN THE POINTS OF CONTROVERSIE with those of the Pretended Reformation By JAMES BENIGNVS BOSSÜET Counseller in the King's Counsels Bishop and Lord of Condom Tutor to his Royall Hyghnesse the Dolphin of France Translated into English by W. M. PRINTED AT PARIS By VINCENT DU MOUTIER Mont S. Hilaire at the signe of the Looking glasse M.DC.LXXII With Approbation and Permission APPROBATION Of my Lord Arch-Bishop and Duke of Reimes the first Peer of France and of other Lords Bishops WE haue reade the Treatise intituled An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholique Church in points of Controuersie composed by IAMES BENIGNVS BOSSÜET Bishop Lord of Condom Tutor to his Royall Hyghesse the Dolphin and after hauing examined it with as much application as the importance of the matter required we haue iudged the Doctrine conformable to the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Faith Which moues vs to propose it vnder that notion to the persons God hath committed to our charge and as we assure our selues that those of the Catholique Communion will be edified by it so we may hope that those of the Pretended-Reformed Religion who shall peruse this worke with attention may receaue from it clearings and disabuses very conducing to guide them into the way of Saluation CHARLES MAVRICE LE TELLIER Arch-Bishop Duke of Reimes CHARLES DE ROSMADEC Arch-Bishop of Tours FELIX Bishop Earle of Chalons DE GRIGNAN Bishop of Vsez D. DE LIGNY Bishop of Meaux NICOLAS Bishop of Luson GABRIEL Bishop of Autun MARC Bishop of Tarbe ARMAND IOHN Bishop of Beziers STEPHEN Bishop Prince of Grenoble IVLIVS Bishop of Tule TO MY DEAR COVNTRYMEN OF ENGLAND Cognoscetis Veritatem Veritas liberabit vos Jo. 8. v. 32. Yee shall know the Truth and the Truth shall sett you free TRVTH is so much the Center of the Spirit of Man as it pretends to moue towards it euen in all the digressions Deuiations it makes from it For euen most of our Errors Delusions passe themselues vpon vs vnder the notion of Truth The Spirit of Falsity disguiseth himself into the Apparēce of an Angel of Light to haue the easier accesse Did not Pilate himself seeme desirous to know Truth when he inquired of our Sauiour what Truth was But most inquier like him as soone as menaced with this terror if you receaue it you are no freind to Caesar you incurre the displeasure of the State and the Penalty of the Laws they decline the further persute of Truth and shrinke into that weakenes which our Sauiour reproached to his timorous inquirers they lou'd the Glory before Men more then the Glory before God Others there are who seeme frighted as the children of Israël were with the misreports of the inhahitants of the land of Chanaan which were falsely represented to them as Gyants and Monsters for so their Pretending Explorators disguise to them the Roman-Catholique Religion vnder the Forged figures of Idolatry or Superstitiō to diuert an inquiry into the true state and constitution of it But as when Iosuah shew'd the children of Israël a true and sensible parcel of the fruits of that earth they were disabused and inflamed with a desire to partake of the blessed fertility of the land of promise so Godbe praised there are many who vpon an equal ingenuous view of the true and natural state of Catholique Doctrine are disabused and protest against the false reporters as the Psalmist did in reiection of vaine inuentions of the Heathens Narrauerunt mihi iniqui Fabulationes sed non vt lex tua Omnia mandata tua Veritas Vniust men make their own storys but what they say is not like thy law All thy commandements are Truth Here is therefore a true naturall parcel of the fruits of that land of promise the Church of CHRIST to which this blessed promise was made that it should be led into all Truth and that CHRIST IESVS the founder of it would remaine with it vnto the end of the world This promise can not be verified in any Church which hath had a notorious deficiency and interruption for many ages which marke of inconformity to CHRIST'S figure and description of the True Church is euident in all the Pretended-Reformations But the designe of this Author was only a short easy exposure of such Catholique Doctrines as the beleefe thereof is fully sufficient to render the professor an intire Orthodox Catholique so that this short Treatise may be call'd rather a Factum of the case then Pleading of the cause since it doth but singly expose the matter of Fact in all our Beleefs whithout any Arguing against the opposite Opinions Whereupon I may not improperly say this is a true picture by the life of Catholique Religion which designeth only a iust and natural representation of it not a character that raiseth beautifyeth the figure it exposeth And in conformity to this profession the pious and prudent Author declareth in the close of this discourse that it was designed only for a Faithfull Manifest in the name of the Catholique Church the vtility whereof was expected in the disabusing all ingenuous Readers in those misreported Doctrines which are wrongfully imputed to her And God hath bless'd this pious proposall so as to recommend it very notoriously by the satisfaction which is profess'd to haue bin receaued by one of the most considerable persons of this age for the honour of his Birth and eminency of all sorts of Merit he hath acknowleged much of his cleer full information of the Catholique Doctrines as receaued from this excellent discourse And surely I haue not seen any edition of this nature as may be more aptly call'd a Mapp of Catholique Religion for all the lesser Controuersies are marked out in very smale points touches but the two Capital seates are distinguish'd by some larger markes which represent them so you will find the Reall Presence of CHRIST in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Masse as being the Capitall seates of our Controuersies extended in a much larger figure then the other questions and the drawing these two figures at their full length with their true features was the most requisit application by reason they are the most aspersed disfigured by the Maligners of the Church And these two Articles rightly understood as they are profess'd and explain'd in this Treatise may promise the remoue of the greatest difficultyes which most frequently auert many ingenuous candid Protestants from entring into an equal impartial inquiry concerning the seeming difficultyes of these two points namely this of the Reall Presence of CHRIST'S Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist as pretending it s not being cleerly explained and likewise the Controuersy about the Sacrifice of the Masse as not appearing euidently specified in holy Scripture Me thinks these two may not be improperly
r Daillé hath writt a treatise intitled Faith grounded vpon the scripture wherein after having exposed all the articles of Faith professed by the Pretended-Reformed Church he Saith that They are without contest the Church of Rome professeth the beleife of them and true it is that they hold not all our opinions but that we hold all their beleefs Wherefore this Minister cannot deny our beleeuing all the principall articles of Christian Religion vnless he will destroy his own Faith But had not Mons r Daillé graunted this the matter proues it self since all the world knowes that we profess the beleife of all those articles which the Caluinists call Fundamentalls so that an ingenuous syncerity would allow vs without dispute this Assertion that we haue not waued or declined any of the Essential perswasions The Pretended-Reformers discerning the aduantages we may draw from this concession seeke to disapoint vs by alledging that we destroy those articles by asserting others which are inconsistent with them This is what they labour to euince by consequences they inferr from our doctrines but the same M r Daillé whome I produce to them not so much to conuīce them by the testimony of one of their most learned Ministers as in regard that what he saith being euident in it self teacheth them what they ought to beleiue of those sorts of consequences supposing that ill ones might be deriued from our Doctrine This is what he saith in his letter to Mons r de Monglat vpon the occasion of his Apologie Although the opinion of the Lutherans in point of the Eucharist inferres according to vs as well as that of Rome the destrūction of the humanity of CHRIST JESVS yet that consequence cannot be obiected to them without calumnie considering that they doe formally reiect it There is nothing more Essentiall to Christian Religion then the verity of the Humane Nature of JESVS-CHRIST and yet notwithstanding the Lutherans hold a doctrine from which is inferr'd a destruction of this Essentiall verity by consequences the Pretended-Reformers account euident they haue not scrupuled to offer them their communion in respect that their opinion hath no poyson in it as M r Daillé attesteth in his Apologie and their Nationall Synod held at Charenton in 1631 admits the Lutherans to their Communion vpon this ground that they agree in the principles and fundamentall points of their Religion It is therefore a maxime constantly established amōgst them that we ought not in this matter to consider the consequences which may be drawne from a Doctrine but simply what the party maintaineth and what he stateth who professeth it So that when by consequences they pretend to deduct from our Doctrine that we can not sufficiently acknowledg the souueraine glory due to God nor the quality of Saviour and Mediator in CHRIST JESVS nor the infinite dignity of Sacrifice nor the superaboundant plenitude of his merits we may easily defeate those consequences by this short answer which M r Daillé himself furnishes vs with by saying that the Catholique Church disclaiming them they can not be imputed to vs without calumny But I will vndertake further and clear to the Pretended-Reformers by the single explication of our Doctrine that so farr it is from ouerthrowing the Fundamentall articles of Faith either directly or by any just consequence that quite contrary our Doctrine hath established them in a manner so solide so euident that without palpable injustice the aduantage of a right vnderstanding them can not admit a question And to begin with the adoration due to God the Catholique Church teacheth that it consists principally in beleiuing that he is the Creator Lord of all things and in adhering to him with all the powers of our soule by faith hope and loue as to him who alone can conferr our Eternall happinesse by com̄unication of the infinite Good which is himself This interior adoration which we render to G'od in spirit and in truth hath its exterior markes of which the principall is Sacrifice which can not be offered but to God alone by reason the homage of Sacrifice is established in order to a publike confession a solemne protestatiō of the soueraingnity of God and of our absolute dependance on him The same Church teacheth that Religiōs Worship ought to terminate in God as being the necessary end and obiect thereof and if the honour she renders to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints may be termed an Act of Religion it is upon the ground that it relateth necessarily vnto God Before I explaine further in what this honour consisteth it will be vsefull to obserue that the Pretended-Reformers being press'd by the power of euident truth begin to acknowledg that the practise of praying to Saints and honoring their reliques was established in the Church euen in the fourth Century M. Daillé making this acknowledgment in the booke he writt against the Latine Church touching the obiect of Religious Worship accuseth S. Basile S. Ambrose S. Hierome S. John Chrysostome S. Augustin and diuers other great lights of Antiquity which did shine in that age and aboue all the rest S. Gregory Nazianzen who is styled the Deuine as a note of his excellency he taxeth all these with hauing changed in this point the doctrine of the preceding ages But surely it will seeme very improbable that M. Daillé should have better vnderstood the sentiments of the three first ages then those who did as it were inherite their doctrine immediately vpon their death and it is by so much the lesse to be beleiued by reason that the fathers of the fourth age were so farre from perceauing any introduction of new doctrines in this Act of Religion that this Minister himself citeth expresse texts by which they shew clearly that they pretended in praying to Saints to follow the example of their Predecessors But not to examin any longer the iudgments of three primitiue ages I rest satisfyed with the graunt of M. Daillé who yealds to vs so many eminent Doctors who did instruct and discipline the Church in the fourth Age. For though it is an easy matter twelue hundred years after their death to taint them by way of scorne with the title of a Sect calling them Reliquarists as persons who honored Reliques I will hope that those of his Communion will beare more respect to those eminent personages they will not presume at least to object that theyr praying to Saints and honoring their Reliques rendred them guilty of Idolatry or that they ouerthrew the confidence that Christians are to haue in IESVS-CHRIST and we may hope that hence forward they will forbeare those reproaches when they consider they can not apply them to vs without laying the same imputation vpon so many excellent persons whose Doctrine Sanctity they professe to reuerence But since it is my worke to exhibite here our Beleif rather then produce the Mantainers of it we must persue the explication of it The Catholique Church teaching the