Fathers who made up the Council To that those Gentlemen say It s one thing to interpret what is obscure and doubtful another thing to propound what is clear and use it to destroy false Impressions It seems to me that those Words signifie that it is not true that Glosses have been made on the Council of Trent they have only related its Terms so clear that they are capable of destroying all the false Idea's that Men had of its Doctrine Can that be said in Conscience that they have related only the very Words of the Council It 's said about the Invocation of Saints That we pray to them in that same Spirit that we pray to our Brethren which are on the Earth to pray for us and with us to our Common Master in the Name of our Common Mediator who is Jesus Christ Are those the Words of the Council Doth it say They should not be invok'd but in that manner and in the same Spirit that we pray the Saints that are on Earth to pray for us I would make Judges thereof such as have Eyes and can but read for these be the Words of the Council according to my Lord of Condom 's Version Because that the Saints who reign with Jesus Christ do offer to God their Prayers for Men it 's good and useful to invoke them in a Suppliant manner and to have recourse to their Aid and to their Succour to impetrate of God his Blessing by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who alone is our Saviour and our Redeemer About Satisfactions my Lord of Condom saith That which is called Satisfaction is after all but the Application of the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ And the Council of Trent saith That in suffering and satisfying for our sins we are made conformable to our Lord Jesus Christ who also hath satisfied for our Sins Upon the Subject of Images the Advertisement saith That we serve not Images but serve our selves of Images to raise up our selves to the Originals And the Council saith That Men must render to Images the Respect and Veneration which is due to them that they must be kissed mens Heads be uncovered and prostrate themselves before them These three Examples may suffice to shew that those Gentlemen do not deal fairly when they say That they go not against the Intention of Pius the Fourth his Bull and that they make no Glâ—ss upon the Conncil of Trent But I am not minded that we should draw a Process against them about it Let them avoid the Ordinance of Pius the Fourth I consent Let them interpret the Council against the Intention of the Bull. I do not think we have any right to oppose it Those Gentlemen do make Rules and have such regard to them as they think good That is not our business And after all that Prohibition of Pius the Fourth hath taken but little place A thousand Controversies have been raised or continued since that Council and every one of the Parties hath explained it to his own favour But what we say and have right to say is That we are not obliged to receive the Interpretations of the Council of Trent opposite to those that have been given us by all the Doctors of the School which we daily read in the universal Practice and constant Use of the Roman Church The Author of the Advertisement may well say That we will not believe neither the Council nor its Catechism nor their Confession of Faith nor the Bishops nor the Pope himself We believe our Eyes we believe what we read and what we see Though at this day all the Roman Church should tell us as this Author doth We do not serve Images God forbid but we serve our selves of Images to raise us up to the Originals We would not believe it and would not be obliged to believe it seeing we see every day the contrary What Obstinacy say they the Bishops Cardinals and the Pope himself approve all these Explications of my Lord of Condom and that of the Author of the Advertisement and you 'l believe that Persons of so great a Character are either Cheats that dissemble their Sentiments or Ignaro's that know not their Religion I wish they would not press us about that We do not believe those Gentlemen to be ignorant they know their Religion well enough but prudently men may often say of what they know that only which they think capable of leading them to the End that they aim at They would diminish the Aversion we have for the Worship and the Doctrines of the Roman Church Prudence therefore would have them to keep from our sight that which offends us and that a Curtain be drawn thereon Let 's do those Gentlemen as much Honour as they can ask to my understanding Let 's believe that they deal fairly that is that sincerely they would have things to be as they express them Really we no ways doubt but there are at this day in the Roman Church many Persons who disapprove the Excesses which are practised in that Church about devotion to the Creatures They willingly wish That Images were not served with Religious Worship they would bring a great allay to the Invocation of Saints if they m ght be believ'd yea happily they might go further I grant that my Lord of Condom and the Archbishops and Bishops his Approvers may have this Sentiment and that we may put into the same rank the Cardinals de Bona and Sigismund of Chigy the most Reverend P. Hyacinth Libâ—lli Archbishop of Avignions the most R. F. Capi Suâ—â—â—i Master of the Sacred Palace my Lord Michael Ange Ricci Secretary to the holy Congregation of Indulgences the Father M Laurent Branâ—ari de Laurea the Abbot Gradi the Bishop and Princes of Munster and the Pope himself Innocent the Eleventh now sitting What doth all that but confirm us in the Thoughts that we have reason to condemn the Excesses that are now condemn'd by Persons which had a great interest to justifie them Put can that oblige us not to believe our Eyes not to believe what we see and what we read Before they can have any right to press us thereabout things should be put into that state wherein they say that they are I hope that entring into the particulars we shall clearly shew that things are in that state wherein we conceive them and not in that wherein they would have us regard them Mean while I will say that the Providence of God permits for our Justification that in an Age wherein they would perswade us that White is black there arise from time to time some Father Cressets that do revive all that Alexis of Salo the Bernardine de Bustis and the Salazars have said most excessively and hainously upon this matter Those Works are printed in the Capital of the Kingdom with Approbation with Priviledge and with all the marks of Honour that might possibly be given in the very front thereof
he see Altars and thereon a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of a God-man who every day after some Mystical Ceremonies descends from Heaven and comes to place himself really under the Accidents of the Consecrated Bread and Wine He sees I say a Sacrifice of Human Flesh but invisible which is done with a great Shew and Attendance of Ceremonies for the Propitiation of the Sins of the Dead and for all the Necessities of the Living He sees an Object which appears to be meer Bread which he must be made to adore as his God his Redeemer and Master He sees Men that make their Prayers and that sing Sacred Hymns but he meets with the Veil of a Language strange and unknown which is diffused through all this Worship and doth conceal it quite from Vulgar Eyes By the favour of an Interpreter he penetrates through this Veil and under it he sees Prayers and Invocations addressed to Creatures whereto are given the magnificent Names of Mediators Mother of Mercifulness Queen of Heaven Refuge of Sinners Gate of Paradice c. from whom Men do request to be delivered from Maladies recovery of Health to be cured of the Languors of their Souls to be loosed from the Bonds of their Sins to receive increase of Virtues to be delivered from Hell and to be put into the possession of the Glory of Heaven by their Merits and by their Intercession He sees a Religion abounding in Ceremonies whereof the Ministers are cloath'd with Habits extraordinary and mystical He sees their Crosses Holy Water and a great external Shew altogether pompous and compounded with an incredible Number of different Parts Piercing yet further he sees Men set upon their Tribunals at the feet whereof they shew him other Men on their Knees confessing their Sins to them and expect Remission from them and he hears those Spiritual Judges on those Tribunals who impose on Sinners Penitences Fastings Pilgrimages Hair-Cloth Cilices rough Shifts to satisfie thereby God and the Church who preach to them That all the Sins committed before Baptism are expiated solely and entirely by the Blood of Jesus Christ but that every Man must satisfie for his Sins committed after Baptism That tell them That Men must labour to merit Eternal life by good Works That teach them That the good Works wherein God takes pleasure are among other Devotions for the Saints Pilgrimages Vows tedious Tautologies of certain Prayers observed in the Honour of some of those Saints and of their Images Who give them to observe a long List of Ecclesiastical Laws about Fasts distinctions of Meats Corporal Mortifications That declare to them That the Non-observance of those Laws of the Church will damn them as much as the violation of Gods Commands Which tell them also That after this life they cannot hope to enter immediately into Heaven but that they must pass through a place of Torment where they shall be examined happily for many Ages by a cruel Fire until they have intirely satisfied for those Sins for which they could not make Satisfaction during this life He sees Priests upon those Tribunals to give with a Tone of Authority and of Power the Remission of Sins to those Penitents and to tell them I absolve you They hear them say That Men must receive their Orders and those of the Church as so many Sentences from Heaven That this Church is infallible and exempt from Errour that She is Judge without Appeal of all Debates That the Holy Scripture in regard of us holds her Authority but only from Her that we could not know the Divinity of the Word of God but only by the Testimony of the Church that She is the Interpreter of her Sense and that the Interpretations which she gives though they seem contrary to Sense to Reason and even to some places of this very Scripture ought to be received with a Soveraign Submission Above those Men which are only called Priests he sees several Dignities but above all he sees a great Monarch Spiritual and Temporal who calls himself Jesus Christs Lieutenant the Vible Head of the Church the Mouth of God who pronounces Oracles and who can never Erre who is above Emperours and Kings who can establish them and who can destroy them Behold what our Infidel may see in the Roman Church Neither he nor I do pronounce any thing we say not whether it be good or bad Going out from thence he enters into the Temples of the Protestants wherein he sees nothing of what he had seen in that place whence he came forth He sees there no Images no Altars no Sacrifices no Pomp no Ceremony They tell him for a reason of this difference God is jealous of his Honour he would not have any Service done to Images he hath expresly forbidden it in the Second Command of his Law The Sacrifices of Christians are Praises and Thanksgivings Works of Mercy Offerings and Alms these are the Oblation of the Heart and Affections and their Perfumes are their Prayers We have no Altars for since that Jesus Christ did Sacrifice his Sacred Person for our Salvation having no more Sacrifices we need no more Altars Our Infidel lending his Ear to what is said hears indeed nothing but Prayers and Hymns which are Sung Sermons Prayers addressed to God no Angels no Saints invoak'd They tell him Prayer is the Principal of our Homages and the first act of our Adoration therefore we reserve it for God We believe that we should offer a great Wrong to the Divinity if we did divide his Honour between Him and his Creatures They shew to this Infidel a small number of Sacraments administred with great simplicity Nothing is disguised from him They tell him What you see on this Table is true Bread and true Wine but it 's Bread and Wine mystical It is the Sacrament of Jesus Christ crucified it is the Symbol of his Flesh and Blood and the precious Pledge of the Love of God the Seal of our Justification and One of the Means of our Sanctification But the Grace which is adjoyned doth not destroy Nature Instead of causing him to adore what his Senses tell him to be Bread They tell him Take heed lest under any Pretence whatever you render to the Creature that Honour which is due only to the Creator for he that said Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve will not be paid with any Excuses it will not avail to say I supposed that my Saviour came under that appearance of Bread Our Infidel sees a Religion which keeps nothing secret from him under pretence of Mystery They do not tell him about the Word of God Walk therein as in a dangerous Way either read not at all or read with a Spirit of Submission for all that the Church hath taught you Do not believe what your Eyes will seem to tell you about your Lectures and whatsoever you may meet withal conclude nothing that may be opposite to the Faith
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
proves that the figurative Sense is a By-way He calls to his help the Types of the Old Testament He abridges what the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have said of the Laws and Rules of the Language to prove that these Words This is my Body cannot be taken in a figurative Sense Yea he refutes and he answers he labours to elude the Proof which we draw from these Words Do this in remembrance of me he expounds our Doctrine and thence draws Arguments for himself I grant that all these ways agree not with my designed Method and I should reckon my self to wander if I should Monsieur of Condom therein I still remember his Prayer which he makes to him that shall desire to answer this Treatise He is intreated to consider that if he would advance any thing he must not undertake to confute the Doctrine which it contains Monsieur of Condom will permit me to tell him That for to advance in his design he should not have undertaken to prove his Doctrine which he had only a design to explain Between him and us at present the Question is not about the Truth of Doctrines but only about their importance The Question is Whether many Disputes may vanish away by the Explications of the Faith of the Roman Church And if the Disputes remaining be as Capital as we would at first have made Men to believe He had undertaken to prove that these latter Disputes according to our Principles do not hurt the foundations of the Faith These are his Words Behold what was his Business and what he should have done But he changes quite he puts an Illusion on us He had promised us one thing and doth another for instead of proving that the Doctrines of Reality and Transubstantiation according to our Principles do not wound the Foundations of the Faith he proves that they are true I confess that this Turn is dextrous having almost nothing to say to colour a Doctrine of that importance and not willing to pass it by without speaking thereof he hath taken the part of proving it Without scruple I will pass over his Proofs Not but that I would do Justice to Monsieur of Condom and would aknowledge here as every where else his Wit his Delicateness and his Dexterity in turning curiously his ways of Reasoning But in fine Methinks I have read nothing in this place but what hath been said many times and whereto sufficient Answers have been often return'd It 's very hard to terminate so grand an Affair with so short an Instruction so short as we find here I will content my self therefore to conjure those who have any care of their Salvation to consult such Authors as have written on this Matter if the difficulties they may find in this place do occasion any such Scruple to arise in them I can hardly believe that such a thing may happen and I think that those who shall suffer themselves to be taken thereby shall have first designed to be deceived In all that Monsieur de Condom saith about the Eucharist there is nothing that maketh for his Subject and tends to our purpose but the Explication which he giv s to our Doctrine and what he calls Reflexion on the Doctrine of the Eucharist There first he confesses that there is nothing wherein we are so effectually opposite So the Dispute cannot be nullified by the Explications of our Beliefs Very far from that the more we explain to the bottom our selves saith he the more we shall find our selves contrary He also grants that it is an important Affair There is nothing saith he which appears more important in our Controversies since the Question is about the Presence of Jesus Christ himself So that Monsieur de Condom cannot yet do here what he had at first proposed to do that is to shew That the remaining Disputes are not so Capital as we at first would have made Men believe He goes yet beyond all that He pretends that it is the only important Controversie and that if we can satisfie ovr selves about it the rest shall vanish easily away That is it which these Words signifie One may wholly dissipate or reduce to very few things the others Subjects of their Complaints so that things be explained About all that we have somewhat to say First We would fain have Monsieur de Condom and all those Gentlemen which do sollicite us to a Reunion to discharge themselves of that Conceit That this the sole important Matter I grant that Reality with all its Attendants is the most important of our Controversies And its Attendants are Transubstantiation Adoration the Sacrifice the Retranchment of the Cup and Masses without Communicants Yet though they could satisfie us about them these Doctors may know that the rest would suffice to retain us in the Separation that we are in We will never worship Creatures nor Images under whatsoever Pretence It is not a business less Capital than that of the Eucharist We never will partake of a Worship composed of so many Ceremonies so opposite to the Spirit of Christian Religion We never will suffer the Veil of an Unknown Tongue to cover Divine Service We never will yield to a Discipline so relaxed as is that which settles Indulgences and will never receive that great Pomp of Human Satisfactions We never will acknowledge an Authority Superiour to that of Gods Word and will never receive any other Universal Head of the Church but Jesus Christ Let none be deceived all that appears Capital to us It is a great Illusion which the Doctors of the Roman Church offer continually to our People They suppose to them that Real Presence is the only important Affair that we have with them and that to the end they may conclude that the rest is nothing seeing this Point is tolerable according to us seeing we tolerate it in the Lutherans I therefore Advertize all that have a care of their Salvation to keep well their Guard on that side to repulse this Temptation holding for certain what I now declared That besides Real Presence we have many more things than needs to separate us from the Communion of the Roman Church Another thing whereof Monsieur de Condom shall permit me to Advertize him is That granting the importance of the Controversie of Reality he considers Reality in it self severed from its Attendants He passes with an unconceiveable swiftness Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Eucharist as if it were nothing He saith not a word of Masses without Communicants and regards the Sacrifice of the Mass and Retranchment of the Cup as Consequences which do rise necessarily from the Doctrine of Reality according to our own Confession So he makes his Fort of the Real Presence only and all this because he thinks to have found about it a great advantage in that we have done in regard to the Lutherans It is a Point wherein we shall give satisfaction anon to them that sincerely seek their Salvation and
That in the Letters of Mission whereof the Churches do charge the Deputies which go to Synods there be a Clause of Submission in these Terms We promise before God to submit to all that shall be concluded and resolved in your holy Assembly being perswaded that God will preside by his Spirit c. To that Monsieur de Condom adds a Fact drawn from the Synod of Saint Foy Anno 1578. where some Overtures were made of Reconciliation with the Lutherans and deputed Four Men to whom was given an Absolute Power to terminate that Affair as should seem good to them Behold say they where ends the false delicateness of these Gentlemen They will not receive the Decisions of Councils they make no difficulty to put their Faith into the hands of Four Men who would be weary to be obliged to answer so many things that come to nothing What doth all that I pray you Doth that prove that we hold the Church for an Infallible Judge All that Monsieur de Condom says returns to this Reasoning or it returns to nothing Those who give their Synods power to judge Soveraignly of Points of Faith who promise Submission in the assurance that the Holy Ghost presides there and who retrench from the Communion of the Church those that would not submit to their Decision give to these Synods an Infallible Authority but the Calvinists do that therefore they give to to their Synods an Infallible Authority This Argument supposes false and concludes ill 1. It supposes false for it is not true that we promit our Synods a blind Submission What is said to them That we are perswaded that God will preside in the midst of them by his Spirit is a Clause of Civility whereof the Terms are not to be abused That signifies nothing but that we wish and hope that the Holy Ghost will direct them It is not true neither that the Synod of Sainte Foy have put the Faith of the Protestant Churches of France in deposito into the hands of Four Men for what was committed to them was not to make new Articles of Faith but only to compose a Formulary in general Terms which all the World might receive And they did not so far refer themselves wholly to their Judgment but that they reserved liberty not to follow them if they should chance to make some false Advance 2. This Argument concludes ill for from what Power we give to our Synods to Judge of the Points of Doctrine and do cut off those that will not submit to their Judgment Monsieur de Condom concludes that we attribute to them an Infallible Authority This Reasoning is worth nothing or this is good The Bishops and Archbishops do give Ordinances Councils Provincial and National in the Roman Church decide Points of Faith and cut off those that will not submit therefore they believe themselves Infallible I do not therefore think that the Bishops neither separately nor in their whole Body out of a General Council esteem themselves Infallible Must then the Priviledge of Infallibility be had to have the Power to Judge of a Point of Faith There would then be none but the Pope or the Council that could Judge thereof There must be an Order Every Society is in right of Judging of Controversies which arise in its bosom and that Member thereof that will not submit to that Judgment may be cast out of the Body Therefore we do properly complain That the Roman Church having pronounc'd against us in the Council of Trent after that did cast us out of their Body They used in that the right which appertains to every Society but we complain that they have unjustly condemned us The Question touching the Rights and Authorities of Councils and Synods deserves an Examen much more ample we will leave it as an Incident which Monsieur de Condom hath brought into his Book without necessity and only to entangle the state of the Question It imports nothing at the bottom what Authority Synods may have to know whether the Roman Religion is far distant from the Protestant which is properly the Affair here in agitation ARTICLE XVI Of the POPE and of his Authority I Follow the Order of Monsieur de Condom I finish by the Head of that great Body into which they would have us re-enter that is the Pope Here also after him a Point whereof we have made a stumbling Block without any reason What is the Pope It is the Principle of Unity the Cement of Union It 's a Head whereto all the Members have a relation and who makes the Uniting of the Church for Men know there is no Goverment more solid and that contributes more to the Conservation of States than the Monarchical What hurt then can there be to set upon the Body of the Church a Spiritual Monarch a Visible Head that may watch for its Conservation and may govern it Must not People be very Captious to make of that a cause of Separation I will regard well this Article at first under the same face that Monsicur of Condom doth The Pope is a Visible Head a Spiritual Monarch but who hath appointed this Monarch Is it possible that Men do not feel that this puts a prodigious difference between the Religion of Protestants and the Roman Religion To make it appear I suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ would have the Government of his Church should be Aristocratical and that he hath put it into the hands of such whom he hath called Bishops and Priests whom he hath invested with equal Power I know well that this Principle is contested but once more I am not oblig'd to prove any thing in this Work I am permitted to suppose my Principles and in supposing them I must shew how they are incompatible with those of that Church whereunto they would have us return If then the Lord Jesus Christ hath setled a Government Aristocratick in his Church this kind of Government is of Divine Right and if it be of Divine Right none must be permitted to change it under whatsoever pretence The kind of Government is so much of the Essence of a State That the State changes absolutely loses its Name and its Form when the Government is changed All the World knows that a Kingdom which by a general Revolt shakes off the Yoke of its legal Master and then a Popular Government a Republick which by the violence of an Usurper becomes a Monarchy are no more what they were before and they would that without ruining the Church they may make a Monarchy thereof against the intention and design of Jesus Christ We do not understand that Suppose we also that this Soveraign Power exercised at Rome be an Usurped Power It is the Principle of Protestants Selon ce Principe is it possible that they would oblige us to submit to an Usurped Power If a Tyrant or Rebel had taken the place of the Legal Prince were it not extream baseness and a Crime of
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
Charity and upheld by Hope This was the Sense of Gabriel Biel Occam Cajetan Dominicus à Soto who was in the Council of Trent these are not Imputations Molina justifies himself in his Book de Concordia liberi arbitrii cum Gratiae donis in citing all these Authors for himself Is there any thing more Pelagian more opposed to the Doctrine of St. Augustine who supposes and proves so often That the best of Mens Actions done without Grace are but illustrious Sins Though it were true to day that the Roman Church were return'd from that were there any right to accuse our Reformers for calumniating her And could they say That all our Reformation is founded on Calumny Were they bound to have a Spirit of Prophecy and to foresee that the School of Thomas which then did not make any figure in the World would reform it self would resume some force and would labour to re-establish part of the Doctrine of St. Augustine about Grace But I add That we have not the like cause to be content with the Council of Trent about the Doctrine of Justification as they would perswade us Why hath it kept measures with Pelagian Opinions Why did they not condem them And why did they affect an Ambiguity through which they save themselves that renew Pelagianism By that Ambiguity of the Canons of the Council of Trent the Author of the Advertisement would satisfie us in a word It 's true saith he there are some Matters which the Council would not decide and they were such whereof the Tradition was not constant and whereof they disputed in the Schools What the Matters of Grace against Pelagians were then but vain Disputes of the School about which it was not prudent to pronounce Had it not been defined in the Second Council of Orange that it 's a Gift of God when we have good Thoughts that we turn away our feet from Errour and Injustice That as often as we do good God acts in us that we may be able to act That we cannot prevent Grace by any Merit and that the good Works that are done without Grace merit not any recompence That the Grace which is not due to us prevents us that we may do good Works That it is the Gift of God to love him That he gives us to Love because he loves us before we love him That of our selves we have nothing but Sin and Lie That God doth in Man many good things without Man but that Man doth no good but what God makes him to do That the Vertue of Pagans was a worldly Cupidity but that of Christians is the Charity of God which is shed abroad in our hearts not by the force of Free Will which is in us but by the Holy Ghost which is given us There can nothing be more opposite to the Opinions of the School of Scotus who teaches That Man of himself may do all kind of good keep all the Commands in their substance love God above all do Acts of Contrition of true Faith true Hope and thereby prepare himself for Justification by a Proxime preparation Yea will they say but the Council of Trent hath condemn'd those lax Opinions which smelt of Pelagianism If they condemned them why are they yet alive in the Roman Church It 's an important Point and that must be proved The School of Scotus of Molina and the Molinists carries it by far and hath still carried it since the Council of Trent against the School of Thomas and the new Thomists This School of Molina teaches formally That all the Acts of Faith of Love of Repentance of Hope which are necessary for the Justification of an adult Infidel may be produced as to the Substance of the Work by a Man in the state of Nature corrupt with the only forces of Free Will That Divine Mysteries are indeed so high that a Man without Revelation could not find them out but when they are reveal'd to him in a convenient manner without any other Grace than an external Revelation and the Command of God to believe he may do Acts of true Faith and receive those Mysteries with full certitude This School saith the same of Contrition of God's Love c. and if Men will not believe us let them believe Molina himself Since the Council of Trent have they not maintained Preparations for Grace by the forces of Nature only with as much violence as before Estius teacheth us that Alphonsus à Castro doth teach That Man by the force of Nature and Free Will in doing that which is in him for observation of Nature's Law in the same Moment receives the Grace of God because that Divine Bounty suffers not that a Man that lives Morally well be deprived for a Moment of that Grace which may render him worthy of Eternal life though he be not instructed in the Faith of Christ and do not yet put his hope in him We learn from the same Estius that Dominicus à Soto who was present at the Council of Trent and made there so much stir in the Disputes about Grace Melchior Canus Franciscus à Victoria and many others do maintain Preparations for Grace under another form and say That Attrition which may be had by the only strength of Nature is sufficient with the Sacrament to obtain the Grace of Justification Vasquez is our Witness that Ricard Antony of Pantuse and many others have held since the Council of Trent That one may by the force of Nature obtain the Succour which is needful to pepare ones self immediately to the Grace of Justification Ricardus Tapperus and John Driedo Professours in the University of Lovain have taught That God fails not to come to him that makes a good use of his Natural strength by the practise of some Works morally good and that he gives him the Succour of his Grace for to dispose him to the remission of Sins All that is formally contrary to the Decisions of the Church against the Pelagians Yet all these Theologues have pretended to follow the Sense of the Council of Trent I demand then of these Gentlemen who assure us that the Canons of this Council have no ambiguity whence comes this diversity of Senses If the Canons of the Council are not ambiguous why do they suffer Persons who teach Pelagian Errours condemned by Canons clear and precise How can it be that Alphonsus à Castro who is such a Catholick should maintain Semi-Pelagianisme pure with such a violence that he accuses the contrary to his of Impurity and Heresie If it be true that this contrary Opinion be that of the Council of Trent Dominicus à Soto was present at the Council he knew their Spirit and should have known it yet from the time of the Council of Trent he put to light a Book Natura Gratia wherein he maintains by the Canons of the Council all his Semi-Pelagian Opinions At the same time Andrew Vega a Franciscan and Ambrose
Catharin Bishop of Minori made other Books whereby they found therein Opinions quite contrary And Catharin also found in the Decisions of the Council the Opinion which he had defended in the Congregations that is That Man may be assured of himself that he is in Grace One cannot avoid it as pretends the Author of the Advertisement in accusing the fair dealing of Fr. Paolo who hath written the History of this Council For the Works of Soto of Vega and of Catharin do subsist at this day And though some of them were no more to be found it would be no less true that they have been But do we need other Proofs to prove the Ambiguity of the Canons of the Council of Trent than the Canons themselves The Author of the Advertisement reproaches Anonymus who hath Answer'd my L. of Condom That he could not cite any one Canon of this Council that is Ambiguous In Truth I know not whether there be any that is not ambiguous in this matter of Justification except those which condemn the Lutherans The first and second of these Canons say That besides the Forces of Human Nature and the Doctrine of the Law Grace is necessary to Man to be justified and for to deserve Eternal life Would not Semi-Pelagians have signed these Canons And will that hinder at this day Thousands of People from teaching with the Semi-Pelagians That Grace is not efficacious of it self but by the Liberty of Man that it is not Grace that determines Man at Conversion that God gives every Man a certain sufficient Grace whereof the good and ill usage do absolutely depend on the Will of Man So that it is Man that distinguishes himself and not Grace that distinguishes Man contrary to what St. Paul saith so precisely Who is he that puts a distinction between thee and another What hast thou that thou hast not received The Third Canon saith That without the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his Succours a Man cannot Believe Love or Repent to obtain the Grace of Justification That is good but what need was there to thrust in a Sicut oportet Man cannot Believe Hope and Love as is needful to receive the Grace of Justification By the favour of this had Word the School of Molina maintains its Pelagianism That without the Grace and the Succour of the Holy Ghost a Man may believe and do true acts of Faith of Hope of Contrition and love God more than all things else And when it is pressed with the Canon of the Council of Trent she saves her self by the Sicut oportet She saith the Canon saith not absolutely That without Grace Man cannot do true Acts of Faith of Love and of Contrition but it saith That he cannot do them in that manner that is needful that is to say That those Acts of Contrition and of Love which are done without Grace are not sufficient for Justification there must intervene some others or that habitual Grace and that of the Sacrament be diffused upon those They that uphold the Doctrine of St. Augustine say to the contrary that the Sense of the Council of Trent is That Man cannot do in any manner those Acts of Love and Contrition without preventing Grace Why did not the Council declare it self about that Methinks the Affair is important enough for the question is no less than for the establishing Pelagianism or for the destruction thereof The Council of Trent will they say hath followed precisely the Sixth Canon of the Second Council of Orenge where the Sicut oportet is also found So the Canon of the Council of Trent is no more ambiguous than that of the Council of Orenge It 's true but the difference is That the Ambiguity of the Canon of the Council of Orenge is innocent and that of the Council of Trent is affected The Council of Orenge could not foresee that Men would abuse this Term as they have done but the Council of Trent could not be ignorant that they would abuse it and put it in expressly that they might not condemn the School of Thomas nor that of Scotus seeing they saw that the Scholasticks had abused that Word which had slipt in innocently into the decisions of the Church they were not excusable in putting it in again into a new Canon to give place to the same Abuses The Fifth Canon which saith That Free Will after the Sin of Adam is neither lost nor quenched or extinct can have a good Sense for we know well that by Sin Men are not become Marbles and Stones Stocks and Stumps But who sees not that this may be explained in favour of those who maintain That Man in the state of Corruption may fulfil God's Law perfectly and do Works that are truly good A Doctrine absolutely Pelagian condemned by the Council of Orenge which declares That the Vertues of Pagans is but Cupidity and Self-love A Doctrine opposed to that Maxim of St. Augustine Homo male utens libero Arbitrio perdidit se liberum Arbitrium c. Ita cum libero peccaretur Arbitrio victore peccato amissum est liberum Arbitrium Man in making ill use of his Free Will hath been lost and his Free Will also In his sinning freely Sin is become Victor and Free Will was lost that is to say that he is so deliberated that without the help of God he can no more turn to the side of Good neither of the good Moral nor of the good Supernatural The Seventh Canon orders That all the Works which are done before Justification in whatsoever manner they are done are not truly Sins and do not merit the hatred of God That is true if by these Actions which precede Justification they understand Acts of Repentance and of Faith which ought to precede Pardon of Sins and which are done by the Succours of the Holy Ghost and of preventing Grace But it is not clear that this Canon doth favour those that say That the Works of the Infidels done without Grace may be good Works and that their Vertues were true Vertues A Doctrine as Pelagian as any that can be so By those Works which precede Justification it is as easie to understand the Works done without Grace as those that are done by preventing Grace I do not here make an Examen of the Council of Trent therefore will I not advance further this Chapter of Ambiguities It 's not the hundred part of Observations of this Nature which might be made and upon the Sixth Session where the Matter of Grace is treated and upon all other Sessions This would be nevertheless enough to let Men see that we have no reason to be satisfied with the Council of Trent about the Manner wherewith they have explained Justification 4. But it is not the only Ambiguity of his Canons which gives us a just subject of Complaint and will afford us a lawful reason to refuse eternally the subscription of those Canons which they have made about
confess himself That the more we explain our selves the more contrary we find our selves to be So all the trouble he takes to convince us by our Principles is more than useless At the most we should only be convinc'd to have spoken in one manner and to have thought in another But we will not yield him that very pleasure of believing that justly We speak as we think and our Expressions are not as they would perswade us an effect of that Politick which is ordinary to such as estrange themselves from the Truth It is that retaining the Sense of the true Church they keep as far as they can possibly her own Expressions We believe a Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Supper as we believe a Real Presence of the Sun upon Earth No man mends to lie nor doth he lie at all when he saith That was done in the presence of the Sun When the Sun is risen he is present to us Yet no Man hitherto hath busied his Head to cause the Sun to descend from Heaven and to shut him up substantially within one of his Beams The Sun is really present by his Light by his Beams and by his Virtue Christ's Humanity is present by its Virtue by its Efficacy by its Merit which are as so many Beams It is a Presence most Real though it be not Corporal And I wonder how my Lord of Condom hath not learn'd it from his Scholasticks They that speaking of the manner wherein Causes do act say that some do act Immediatione Virtutis by an immediate Presence of Vertues and others Immediatione suppositi by an immediate presence of Persons of Suppost or Substance Who should say to those Doctors of the School That their immediate Presence of Virtue is a Chimaera and is not a real Presence I believe they make stir enough about it being so much in love with wrangling We believe sincerely as we speak it that we are made partakers of the proper Substance of Jesus Christ because we are not made partakers of the Substance of another because we receive the efficacy and merit of that Flesh really And that is all that is important to our Salvation in that Flesh for otherwise it's Nerves it 's Fibres it's Bones as such do not Sanctifie nor Justifie The Flesh profits nothing it is the Spirit that gives life If they will repeat to Eternity That it is not possible to make it to be understood that a Body which is not communicated to us but in Spirit and by Faith be really communicated to us and in its proper Substance We cannot help it otherwise than to repeat always also that the Spiritual Actions of the Soul are as real and more real than the Corporal Actions of the Body Though the Spirit alone by Faith do see the Humanity of Christ Jesus in Heaven we believe that that Sight is more real amd less subject to Illusion than that of Bodies which shall see Jesus Christ with the Eyes of Flesh and I can hardly conceive that Men can have their Comprehension of so great hardness as not to be able to comprehend that In fine We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is more fully communicated to us in the Eucharist than in Baptism because we have in the Eucharist that which we have in Baptism what we have in the Word of God and somewhat more It is not that Jesus Christ and his Graces can be divided he that receives Jesus Christ receives him whole intirely Yet the more that Grace is setled in our Souls the more Means God employs to sortifie it there and the more so far do we partake of Jesus Christ Three are more than Two When after having received the Grace of Baptism and Instruction by the Word God doth also add thereto the Sacrament of the Eucharist it is certain that Grace is confirmed augmented and established thereby and that we possess Jesus Christ more closely still Besides that it is certain that Jesus Christ hath promised to communicate to us his Graces in a particular manner and more efficacious in a Communion most devout than in the Word because the Word doth propose Graces but in general and a devout Communion applies them to every particular I will not touch what Monsieur de Condom saith upon these Words of our Catechism That the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ inasmuch as it hath been once offered in Sacrifice to reconcile us to God is now given to us to certifie us that we have a share in that Reconciliation I find what he saith thereon so fine and of so great Subtilty that I am assured that they for whom this principally was written will hardly understand it and that they who have a Spirit Metaphysical enough to enter into these abstracted Reflexions I believe they also will have penetration enough not to entangle themselves therewith The other thing which Monsieur de Condom saith which is to the purpose that we treat of is that we have offered Peace to the Lutherans who believe the Real Presence and that we have declared that this Doctrine hath no Venom at all that it doth not overthrow the Foundation of Faith and that it should not break Communion among Brethren And thereupon they tell us That whatever Evil might be in the Opinion of the Real Presence we have taken from our selves the right of prevailing thereby Seeing that you tolerate it in the Lutherans why should you not tolerate it in Catholicks We oppose thereto that they give Attendants to the Reality which we cannot tolerate Monsieur de Condom Answers That no Subtilty of the Minesters shall ever be able to perswade Men of good Sense that bearing with the Reality which is the Point most important and difficult they should not also bear with the rest He adds That by a secret Providence it hath happened that Calvinists have agreed that supposing that we should take literally these Words This is my Body the Catholicks do Reason better and more consequently than the Lutherans It would be presently a great rashness to hope that we may shut the Mouth of those Gentlemen about this Objection which they have renewed within these 50 years more than a Million of times and whereto Answer hath been made as often without being able to obtain from them a Moment of Equity It is not then to them that I will speak since they are resolved not to hear us it is to them that seek their Salvation with a Spirit of Humility and I pray them to consider 1. That what we have offered to the Lutherans is infinitely different from that which they demand of us at this day We have offered to the Lutherans to tolerate them in the Doctrine of the Real Presence and they demand of us to re enter into the Roman Church to make Profession thereof Have we offered to the Lutherans to re-enter into their Communion to break our Assemblies to incorporate them with
Theirs and to make Profession of the Real Presence We have offered only to them in remaining still separate from them as We are both by Assemblies and by some Ceremonies external little important to tolerate them to regard them as our Brethren to receive them when they will come to us without obliging them to an express abjuration of the Doctrines that separate us Behold what we have offered And it is demanded of us That abandoning our Assemblies our Ceremonies and our Doctrines and particularly that of the Real Presence we should re-unite that is to say that we re-enter without any more ado into the Roman Church to believe the Real Presence or at least to make Profession of believing it There is so great difference between tolerating an Errour and to make Profession of believing that Errour that the former may be an action of Charity and the second cannot be but an abominable Hypocrisie The one serves towards Salvation and by the other we evidently hazard our Salvation I can say with assurance that if we should re-enter into the Lutheran Church and that we should bring back our People to them to make their Profession of the Real Presence we should commit a Crime that God would never pardon us After that they would have Ministers to lead back their People into the Roman Church without Mystery to make their Profession of the Real Presence which is a thousand times more dangerous than what we tolerate in the Lutherans 2. We may further tolerate the Real Presence of the Lutherans without tolerating that of the Roman Church because there is a very great difference between the one and the other But before we pass further it is good to remark that what those Doctours say is not true That we regard that Real Presence of the Lutherans as a light Errour It is a great Evil and to cure our Brethren of it we would willingly have given half our own Blood And what we have offered to tolerate them it was principally in hope to bring them back by little and little from their wandring If then we say that their is no Venom in that Opinion we understand it of mortal Venom and a killing One. It is enough to confess some Venom in an Opinion to acknowledge therein some Absurdities which dishonour Reason and blast Christian Religion and we acknowledge it too much in the Real Presence of the Lutherans But it is true that we believe not that it destroys any foundation of Faith We regard it principally in that manner wherein it is expressed in their Confession which saith Touching the Lords Supper they teach that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are truly present and are distributed to them who eat at the Lords Supper and condemn those who say the contrary There is nothing in these general Words that we might not subscribe to As for the manner of this Presence they are reserved and define it not They say Jesus Christ is there but we know not how If there be any which do pass rashly further in setling what they call Ubiquity that is to say the Presence of Christ's Humanity in all places of the World that passes not among them for a Fundamental Point The Real Presence of the Lutherans doth not destroy the Bread for they confess that the Signs are of true Bread and true Wine and according to that they do not suppose that God offers perpetually an Illusion to our Senses to make us see and feel a Body where there is not a Body They do not destroy the Sacrament seeing they leave the Signs entire The Real Presence of the Lutherans hath not for Attendants the Adoration of the Eucharist and obliges not Men to adore a Creature It doth not induce a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Among the Lutherans they have not retranched the Cup from the People In fine It is not accompanied with an infinite Number of Worships of Ceremonies and of Doctrines which be incompatible with the purity of the Faith In that Church they do not Worship Images they do not Invoke Saints they do not prostrate themselves before Relicks they serve God in a Known Tongue they acknowledge no Mediator but Jesus Christ no other Satisfaction but his Merit any other Indulgence but his Grace any other Soveraign Authority but his own and that of his Word In a word Let the Roman Church set her Real Presence in the same state as is that of the Lutherans and we will offer to them the same thing which we offer to these so they will not ask us any more that is to say that we will offer them a Toleration so that she will not demand us to re-enter into her Communion For yet once more We never offered to conjoyn with the Lutheran Church whilst they abide in the state wherein they are and we will never do it for any thing in the World 3. I must yet Advertize once more these Gentlemen that for to know the poyson of an Errour one must principally regard it in that which is diffused on practice both of the Worship and of Morality Then for to know how dangerous the Real Presence is we must not regard it in her self but in the Attendants given it that is Adoration the Sacrifice and the Retranchment of the Cup. There it is that the danger lies and that is it that the Lutherans have not No subtilty of the Ministers saith Monsieur de Condom shall ever be able to perswade Men of good Sense that bearing with the Reality which is the most important Point and the more difficult they ought not also to tolerate the rest How can the Ingenuity and Light of Monsieur of Condom permit him to say that What if they tolerate a Speculative Opinion which changes nothing in the Worship and in the Religion shall we be obliged to tolerate the Adoration of a Creature which is of all things most opposite to the Foundations of Faith If a Man be perswaded that God is in the Sun by a presence of Substance greater than that wherewith he is in the rest of the World it would be an absurd Opinion But I know not whether there be any Person that would damn a Man for that alone but if that Man would conclude from that Errour that Men ought to worship the Sun and should himself so worship it what Sentiment should we have of him As for me I would tolerate his Errour as a Visionary Thought but I would abhor him as an Idolater because of his Conclusion If then to perswade Men it may be sufficient to express things with a great Assurance I say there will never be any subtilty or disguise that may perswade Men of good Sense that Toleration for a Real Presence should induce to a Toleration for the Attendants which the Roman Church gives it They say to that That they are not Attendants given thereto but that they are Natural Attendants and that even the