CHRIST died for us that his Sacrifice is sufficiently applied to us by Faith and that this application is sufficiently certified to us by the Word of God They add That if this Word must be clothed with sensible Signs it is enough to give simple Symbols such as the Water of Baptism without any necessity of fetching the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST from Heaven There seems to be nothing more easie than this manner of explicating the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Nevertheless our Adversaries themselves do not think it ought to suffice them They know such kind of Imaginations made the Socinians deny the great Miracle of the Incarnation God might have saved us say these Hereticks without so much difficulty he had nothing to do but to pardon out faults and might have instructed us sufficiently as well in Faith as in Manners by the Preaching and Examples of a Man full of the Holy-Ghost without any need of making him a God But the Calvinists as well as we see the weakness of this Argument which appears first from it s not appertaining to us to deny or affirm Mysteries according as they appear to us useful or unprofitable to our Salvation God alone knows the Secret and it is our business to render them useful and saving to us in believing them as he proposes them and in receiving his Graces after the manner he bestows them upon us Secondly not to enter into the question whether it was possible for God to save us by any other means than the Incarnation and Death of his Son and not to meddle with that unnecessary dispute which the Pretended Reform'd Religion treats of so at length in the Schools it suffices we have learnt from the Scriptures that the Son of God has been pleased to testifie his Love to us by incomprehensible Effects This Love has been the Cause of this so real an Union by which he was made Man This Love moved him to immolate the same Body for us as really as he united himself to it All these designs are consecutive and this Love maintains it self in all things with the same vigour So that when it shall please him to make each of his Children experience the goodness which he has testified to all in general by giving himself to them in particular he will find out a method to accomplish his Desires by no less efficacious means than those by which he had already accomplished our Salvation Upon which account we must not be hereafter astonished if he give to each of us the proper Substance of his Body and Blood He does it that he may imprint this in our Hearts that it was for us he took them and for us he offered them up in Sacrifice That which preceded makes all that follows credible to us the order of his Mysteries dispose us to believe all this and his express word permits us not to doubt of it Our Adversaries saw very well that simple figures and signs of his Body and Blood would not content Christians who are accustomed to the Bounties of a God who gives himself to us so really Wherefore they will not suffer us to accuse them of denying a real and substantial participation of JESVS CHRIST in their Supper They affirm Cat. Dim 53. as well as we that he makes us there Partakers of his proper Substance they tell us that he nourishes and quickens us with the substance of his Body and Blood Conf. of Faith art 36. and judging that it would not be enough to shew us by some sign that we are partakers of his Sacrifice Cat. Dim 52. they say expresly that the Body of our Saviour which is given us in the last Supper assures us of it words very remarkable which we will examine by and by Behold then the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST present in our Mysteries by the acknowledgment of the Calvinists for what is communicated according to its proper substance must be really present It is true they explicate this Communication by saying it is in Spirit and by Faith but it is true also they will have it real And because it is impossible to make it intelligible how a Body that is communicated to us only in Spirit and by Faith can be communicated to us really and in its proper substance therefore they have not been able to continue firm in the two parts of a Doctrine so contradictory and they have been obliged to acknowledg two things which cannot be true but by supposing what the Catholic Church teacheth The first is That JESVS CHRIST is given to us in the Eucharist after a manner whch neither agrees with that of Baptism nor the Preaching of the Gospel but is peculiar to this Mystery We shall see by and by the Consequence of this Principle but let us first see how it is granted us by those of the Pretended Reformation I will not here alledge the Authority of any particular Author but the proper words of their Catechism where it explicates what concerns the last Supper It does not only tell us in express terms that JESVS CHRIST is given us in the Supper in reality and according to his proper Substance but that Dim 53. tho he be truly communicated to us both by Baptism and the Gospel yet nevertheless it is only in part and not fully From whence it follows that he is given us in the Lords Supper fully and not in part There is a vast difference betwixt receiving in part and receiving fully If then we receive JESVS CHRIST every where else in part and it be only in the Lords Supper we receive him fully it follows by the consent of our Adversaries that we must look out for a participation in the last Supper which is proper only to this Mystery and which does not agree with Baptism and Preaching but at the same time it follows also that this participation is not annexed to Faith because Faith being generally dispersed through all the Actions of a Christian is found in Preaching and in Baptism as well as in the Lords Supper In reality it is remarkable that what desire soever the Pretended Reformers had to render Baptism and Preaching equal to the last Supper because JESVS CHRIST is there truly communicated to us they durst never affirm in their Catechisms that JESVS CHRIST is given us in his proper Substance by Baptism and Preaching as they say he is given in the Eucharist They saw then they could not avoid attributing to the Eucharist a manner of possessing JESVS CHRIST peculiar only to this Sacrament and that Faith which is common to all the Actions of a Christian could not be this particular manner But this peculiar manner of possessing JESVS CHRIST in the last Supper ought also to be real seeing it gives to the Faithful the proper substance of the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST So that we must conclude from what they grant us there is in the Eucharist a real manner of
receiving the Body and Blood of our Saviour which is not performed by Faith and this is what the Catholic Church teaches The second thing granted by the Pretended Reformers is taken out of that Article which immediately follows that which I have already cited out of their Catechism Dim 52. which is That the Body of our Lord JESUS for as much as it was once offered up in Sacrifice to reconcile us to God is now given to assure us we have a part in that Reconciliation If there be any Sense in these Words if they be not an useless found and a vain amusement we ought to understand by them that JESVS CHRIST does not give us a Symbol only but his proper Body to assure us we partake of his Sacrifice and of the Reconciliation of Mankind But if the reception of the Body of our Lord assures us of our participation of the Fruits of his Death this participation of the Fruits must necessarily be distinguished from the reception of the Body seeing one is the pledg of the other From whence to proceed I say If our adversaries are forced to distinguish in the last Supper the participation of the body of our Blessed Saviour from the participation of the fruits of his Grace in his Sacrifice they must also necessarily make a distinction between the participation of this Divine Body and all kinds of Spiritual participation by Faith This latter participation will never furnish them with two distinct Actions by one of which they receive the Body of our Saviour and by the other the benefit of this Sacrifice no man being able to conceive what difference there is betwixt partaking by Faith of the Body of our Saviour and partaking by Faith of the Fruit of his Death They must therefore acknowledg that besides the Communion by which we spiritually partake of the Body of our Saviour and also of his Spirit by receiving the fruit of his Death there is also a Real Communion of the Body of the same Saviour which is to us a certain Pledg of the others being assured to us if we put no impediment to such a Grace by an evil Disposition This is necessarily included in the Principles they admit and they will never be able to explicate this Truth with the least shadow of Solidity if they return not to the Sentiments of the Church Who will not here admire the force of Truth All the consequences which follow from the acknowledged Principles of our adversaries are perfectly understood in the sentiment of the Church Catholicks the meanliest instructed without difficulty conceive that in the Eucharist there is a Communion which JESVS CHRIST which is not to be found any where else It is no difficulty for them to understand his Body is given us to assure us we partake of his Sacrifice and of his Death They distinguish clearly betwixt these two necessary manners of uniting or selves to JESVS CHRIST the one in receiving his proper flesh the other in receiving his Spirit the first of which is granted us as a certain pledge of the second But seeing these things are inexplicable in the sentiments of our adversaries tho on the other hand they cannot deny them we must necessarily conclude that errour has thrown them into a manifest contradiction I have been often astonished they did not explicate their Doctrine after a more plain manner Why did they not always without so many formalities persevere to say that JESVS CHRIST having shed his Blood for us represented to us this effusion by giving us two distinct signs of his Body and Blood that he was pleased indeed to give to these signs the name of the thing it self that these sacred signs were pledges to assure us of our partaking of the fruit of his Death and that we were spiritually nourished by the vertue of his Body and Blood After so many endeavours to prove that signs often receive the names of the things signified and that for this reason the sign of the Body might be called the Body all this connection of Doctrine obliges them naturally to fix there To render these signs efficacious it sufficed the Grace of Redemption was annexed to them or rather according to their Principles that it was in them confirmed to us They needed not have tormented themselves as they have done to make us understand we receive the proper Body of our Saviour to assure us we partake of the Grace of his Death They were well enough satisfied to have the water of Baptism a sign of the Blood which washeth us and it never entred into their fancies to say we there received the proper substance of the Blood of our Blessed Saviour to assure us his vertue is there diffused upon us If they had argued after the same manner as to the Eucharist their Doctrine would have been less embroyled But those who invent and innovate cannot express all they have a mind to They find certain truths and maxims established which incommode them and force a violence upon their imaginations The Arians would gladly have resused our Blessed Saviour the name of God or the only Son of God The Nestorians did not admit but with reluctance that kind of I know not what unity of person in JESVS CHRIST which we find in their writing The Pelagians who denied Original sin would also willingly have denyed that Baptism was given to little children for the remission of sins for by that means they would have been freed from the argument which Catholicks drew from this practice to prove that original defect But as I just now said those who find some truths firmly established have not the boldness or rather impudence to overthrow all Let the Calvinists ingenuously confess the truth they would have been well pleased to acknowledge in the Eucharist the Body of our Blessed Saviour only figuratively and the sole participation of his Spirit in effect laying aside those great words of Participation of his proper substance and the many others which import a real presence and serve only to perplex them It would have been more to their humour to have acknowledged in the Lords Supper no other communion with JESVS CHRIST but what is also common to Preaching and to Baptism without telling us as they have done that in the Lords Supper he is received in plentitude and every where else only in part But however this was their inclination yet the very force of the terms opposed them our Blessed Saviour having said so precisely of the Eucharist This is my body This is my Blood which he never did of any other thing nor upon any other occasion what likelihood was there of rendring that common to all the Actions of a Christian which his express word had annexed to one particular Sacrament And farther the whole order of divine providence the connexion of Doctrine and Holy Mysteries the intention of JESVS CHRIST in his last Supper the words themselves which he uttered and the impression which they
Doctrine has naturally as I may say passed through all the degrees of Approbation till it came to that of the Pope himself which confirms all the rest Those of the Pretended Reformed Religion may at present see how they were imposed upon An. Avert p. 23. when they were told The Person was known and that a Catholick too who writ against this Exposition of M. de Condom It would certainly be a strange thing this good Catholick unknown to all others of that Religion should make the Enemies of the Church his only Confidents in a Work which he designed against a Bishop of his own Communion But this Imaginary Writer makes the World stay too long and the Pretended Reform'd are too credulous if they suffer themselves hereafter to be amused by such like Promises Thus one of the necessary Questions to be answered in vindication of the Exposition is entirely dispatch'd We need not now go about to refute those Ministers who held the Doctrine of the Exposition not to be that of the Church Time and Truth have so refuted their allegations that no room is left for a reply M. Nogâ—ier would first hear the Oracle of Rome speak before he would admit M. de Condom to have rightly explicated the Catholock Faith p. 41. I give no credit says he to those Approbations which these Bishops give in Writing Other Doctors want not the like Approbations and after all the Oracle of Rome must speak in matters of Faith The Anonymus was of the same mind and both of them supposed nothing more could be said in this matter against M. de Condom if once this Oracle had but spoken This Oracle has now spoken this Oracle I say which the whole Catholick Church hearkned to with so much respect in the very origine of Christianity and the answer it has given has shewn what this Prelate had said hath nothing new or to be suspected in it nothing in a word which is not receiv'd throughout the whole Church Nay this Question being answered all the others are in a manner insensibly dispatcht Mr. de Condom held the Catholick Doctrine was never rightly understood by the pretended Reform'd and that the Authors of their Separation had magnified the Objects to render them odious What he said appears now most certain seeing it is manifest on the one side the Exposition proposes to them the Catholick Faith in its Purity and on the other that it appeared less strange to them than they thought it was But if they find their Pretended Reformers to the end they might animate them against that Church in which their Ancestors served God and in which they themselves received Baptism were forced to fly to those Calumnies which we see now are not maintainable how can they dispence with themselves if they search not a new And why are they not afraid to persist in a Schism which is manifestly founded upon false Principles in even the most principal points They believ'd for example they had good grounds to separate from the Church under pretence that whilst she taught the merit of good Works she destroyed Free Justification Gratuite and that Confidence which a Christian ought to have in JESVS CHRIST only Their breach was principally founded upon this Article An. p. 86. The Anonymus thinks it enough to say The Article concerning Justification is one of the chief that gave occasion to the Reformation But M. Noguiers speaks more plainly Nog p. 83. Those says he who were the Authors of our Reformation had reason to propose the Article of Justification as the most principal of the rest and the most Essential Foundation of their separating At present then seeing M. de Condom tells them together with the whole Church Expos p. 14 15. That she believes we cannot have Life but in Jesus Christ in whom alone she puts all her Hope That she asks all things hopes all things and gives thanks for all things through our Lord JESVS CHRIST and in fine that she places all the hopes of Salvation on him What would they have more The Church tells us Expos p. 15. That all our Sins ars pardon'd by pure Mercy through JESVS CHRIST That we owe that Justice which is in us by the Holy Ghost to his free undeserved liberality and that all our good Works which we do are so many gifts of his Grace The Author of this Exposition who teaches this Doctrine does not teach it as his own God forbid Ibid. p. 15. He teaches it as the clear and manifest Doctrine of the Council of Trent and the Pope approves his Book After this shall it be again said That the Council of Trent and the Roman Church overthrow Free Justification and that trust which the Faithful ought to repose in Jesus Christ alone Is not this unsufferable And if we should hold our Tongues would not the Stones cry aloud and proclaim us injur'd It must be also granted as it was taken notice of in the Exposition Ex. p 15. that those Disputes which the Pretended Reform'd have raised upon so capital a Point are almost brought to nothing not to say wholly refuted No body will doubt of it if they consider what the Anonymus has writ concerning the merit of Good Works with the approbation of four Ministers of Charenton We acknowledge says he as in Justice we must M. de Condom and those of the Roman Church An. p. 104. who hold the most Orthodox Opinions concerning Grace express themselves almost in all things as we do We agree with them in the main But since he promised us so much Justice he ought to have acknowledged that M. de Condom whom he makes here to be of a particular Sect has not said one word concerning the merit of Good Works which is not taken from the Council Expos p. 13 14 15. He said Eternal Life ought to be proposed to the Children of God both as a Grace which is mercifully promised to them by the means of our Saviour Jesus Christ and as a Recompence which is faithfully rendred to their good Works and to their merits in virtue of that Promise He said That Merits are the gifts of God He said We can do nothing of our selves but that we can do all things with him who strengthens us and that our whole confidence is in JESVS CHRIST And the rest which you may see in their proper place By this means it is he has satisfied the Pretended Reform'd and made them say they agree with him in the main Seeing therefore these Propositions are taken word by word from the Council they cannot hereafter but acknowledge the Principal Subject of their complaints to be taken away by the sole proposing the Decrees and proper Terms of a Council so much hated and blamed amongst them What is it offends them most in the Satisfactions which the Church exacts from the Faithful but only that they think Catholicks looks upon those of
FOR VS No matter for that the Ministers will never believe it They must then raise out of their Catechism and their Confession of Faith these accusations of Idolatry with which they are filled they must retrench in their Sermons so many bloody Invectives which have no other Grounds and this they cannot resolve of and let us make what Declarations we can of our Minds they will neither believe the Council not its Catechism nor our Confession of Faith nor the Bishops nor the Pope himself It is not necessary to repeat here what is said in the Exposition as to other objections Exp. p. 8. and principally as to that where they accuse the Church of attributing to Saints a divine Knowledge and Power whilst she teaches they can neither know nor do any thing of themselves But the accusation of Idolatry has another Foundation which they accuse M. de Condom to have palliated as well as the others And it is the Article concerning Images An. Av. p. 24. where nevertheless he has searched no other Palliations but to expose faithfully the meaning of the Church Rep. p. 65. There needs no more than this to make the very Suspition of Idolatry to vanish according to the Principles of the Pretended Reform'd and they need only in this compare the Doctrine of their own Catechism with that of the Council of Trent represented in the Exposition Their Catechism upon this Commandment Dim 23. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image Asks whether God forbids the making of any Image And the answer is No but that God forbids only the making of any Image whereby to represent God or to adore it Behold the two things which they think forbidden in this Precept of the Decalogue It may be they will do us the Justice to believe we do not pretend to represent God and that if they see in some Pictures God the Father Painted in that form which he was pleased so often to appear in to his Prophets we pretend no more to derogate from his Invisibile and Spiritual Nature than he himself when he exhibited himself under that form The Council explicates sufficiently to them upon this account Sess 25. that we pretend not thereby to represent or express the Divinity or to give it any Colours and I think I should do them an injury in proceeding to a clearer Proof Let us pass to the second part of their Doctrine and let us learn from their Catechisms what form of Adoration is condemned To Prostrate ones self says the Answer before an Image to pray to it to how the Knee before it or shew some other sign of reverence as if God exhibited himself there to us This is in effect the Errour of the Gentiles and the proper Character of Idolatry But they who believe Expos p. 9 10 11. with the Council That Images have neither Divinity nor Vertue in them for which they ought to be reverenced and who place all the benefit in their recalling the Originals to our remembrance do not believe that God in them exhibits himself to them It is not therefore Idolatry by the consent of the Pretended Reform'd and according to the proper Definition of their Catechism The Anonymus seems to have been sensible of this Truth in that place where objecting this Commandment of the Decalogue he says P. 67. that God forbids to make Images and to worship them He is in the right The words of the Precept are express and the Images there spoken of are those which are forbidden to to be made as well as to be worshiped That is to say according to the explication of his Catechism those which are made to represent God and those which are made to show him present and which are worshipped with the same intention as full of his Divinity We neither make nor suffer any of this nature We do not worship Images God forbid but we make use of Images to put us in mind of the Originals Our Council so odious to the pretended Reform'd Church teaches us no other use of them Is this then enough to make them say as that Church doth in her own Confession of Faith that all sorts of Idolatry are in vogue in the Roman Church Art 28. Is it for this that her Discipline calls us Idolaters and our Religion Idolatry Disc art 11.13 Art 5.2 Without doubt they represent to themselves other things than our Doctrine when they give us the name of Gentiles They believe we follow their abominable Errors and that we believe as they did that God shews himself to us in those Images Had it not been for these mortal Prejudices had it not been for Ideas which they frame to themselves of the sentiments of the Church Christians could never have imagined it so detestable a crime to kiss the Cross in remembrance of him who bore our Iniquities upon the wood nor that so simple and natural a demonstration of those sentiments of tenderness which that Pious Object excites in our hearts ought to make us regarded as if we Adored Baal or the Golden Galves of Samaria During this strange preocupation of the Pretended Reform'd this Treatise of the Exposition might well appear to them which really in effect it did a Book full of Artifice which did nothing but extenuate the Sentiments of Catholicks But now when they see clearly all the Artifice of this Book is to separate the Doctrines which they have imputed to the Church from those which she professes that all the mitigations he makes in Doctrine is that he has taken off that hidious Masque which the Ministers had put upon it let them confess this Church was not worthy of so much horror as they had for her and that at least she deserves to be heard Neither the Pope nor the Sea Apostolick ought to be hereafter accused of diminshing that adoration which is due to God nor that confidence which a Christian ought to establish in his sole goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ since they see without further search this Treatise of the Exposition which is made only to explicate these two Truths has received at Rome and from the Pope himself so Authentick an Approbation After this they will certainly be ashamed of that Title which they give the Pope No one can think on it without horrour nor hear without astonishment that the Pretended Reform'd who boast to follow Scripture word for word when the Apostle St. John who has alone named Antichrist tells us three or four times that Antichrist is he who denies that JESVS CHRIST is come in flesh 2. Joh. 1.7 1 Joh. 2.22.4.3 dare so much as think that he who teaches so fully the Mystery of JESVS CHRIST that is to say his Divinity his Incarnation the superbundance of his Merits the necessity of his Grace and that absolute confidence we must have in it should nevertheless be that Antichrist described by the Apostle But it is
objected against the Popes 2. Thes 2.3.4 that they are that wicked Person that man of Iniquity who has seated himself in the Temple of God and makes himself adored as God They who confess themselves not only mortal men but sinners who pray every day with the rest of the Faithful forgive us our offences and who never approach the Altar without Confessing of their sins and without saying in the most essential part of the Holy Sacrifice they hope for eternal life not by their own Merits but through the Bounty of God in the name of our Lord JESVS CHRIST T is true they maintain that Primacy which JESVS CHRIST has given them in the Person of St. Peter but it is by That they advance the Work of JESVS CHRIST himself the Work of Charity and Concord which would never have been perfectly accomplished if the Universal Church and all the Episcopal Order had not one head of Ecclesiastical Gover ment upon Earth to make the Members act in concurrence and accomplish in the whole Body the Mystery of Unity so much recommended by the Son of God It is just as much as nothing to answer that the Church has her true Head in Heaven who Unites her by animating her with his Holy Spirit who doubts of it But who does not know this Holy Spirit who disposes all things with as much sweetness as efficacy knows also how to prepare exteriour means proportionable to his designs The Holy Ghost both teaches and governs us interiourly therefore he establishes Pastors and Teachers to Act exterourly The Holy Ghost Unites the Body of the Church and the Ecclesiastical Government therefore it is he places at the head a common Father and a principal disposer who may Govern the whole Family of JESVS CHRIST We will call to witness the Consciences of those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion In this unfortunate age when so many wicked Sects endeavour by little and little to undermine the Foundations of Christianity and believe it enough only to name JESVS CHRIST to introduce indifferency in Religion and manifest impiety into the bosom of the Church Who sees not the necessity of a Pastor who may watch over his flock and authorized from above encite all others whose vigilance might slacken Let them in reality tell us if it be not the Seconians the Anabaptists the Independants those who under the name of Christian Liberty would establish indifferency in Religions and so many other pernicious Sects which they condemn as well as we who fly with the greatest impetuosity against St. Peters Chair and cry loudest that his Authority is Tyrannical I do not wonder at it those who would divide the Church or surprise her fear nothing more than to see her march against them like a well ranged Army under one head Let us not raise a quarrel with any let us only reflect whence come those Books wherein these dangerous Licenses and Antichristian Doctrines are taught at least none can deny but the See of Rome by the very Constitution of it is incompatible with these Novelties and if we could not know by the Gospel that the Primacy of this See is necessary for us Experience it self would convince us of it Moreover We must not be astonished if this Author of the Exposition who places the essential Authority of this See in those things wherein all Catholic Schools agree hath been approved without difficulty The Chair of St. Peter stands in need of no disputing what all Catholics acknowledge without contestation suffices to maintain that Power which was given to it for edification and not for destruction The Pretended Reform'd should hereafter give way no more to those vain Phantoms with which they are frighted What does it profit them to search in Histories for the Vices of Popes when if what they meet with there should be true does the Vices of men destroy the institution of JESVS CHRIST and the Priviledge of St. Peter shall the Church rise in Rebellion against a Power which maintains her Unity under pretence that some have abus'd it Christians are accustomed to reason upon higher and more true Principles and know that God is able to maintain his works in the midst of all the evils which accompany humane frailty We do then Conjure these of the Pretended Reform'd Religion by that Charity which is God himself by the name of Christian which is common to us both not to judge of the Doctrine of our Church by what they hear in their Sermons or read in their Books where many times the heat of dispute and Prevention not to mention any other make things frequently otherwise represented then they are but to hearken to this Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine It is a work in reality which consists not so much in disputing as in explicating clearly our belief In which to see how plainly the Author has proceeded we need only consider his design He promised in the very beginning 1. To propose the true Tenets of the Catholic Church Exp. p. 2. and to distinguish them from those which are falsely imputed to her 2. To the end no one should doubt but that he faithfully proposed the true Sentiments of the Church Exp. p. 2. he promised to take them from the Council of Trent where the Church has spoken decisively upon the things in question 3. He promised to propose to the Pretended Reform'd not all points in general Exp. p. 2. but those which caused the greatest separation betwixt them and us and to speak properly those which they made the occasions of their breach 4. He promised that what he said to make the decisions of the Council more intelligible Exp. p. 2. should be approved of in the Church and manifestly conformable to the Doctrine of the same Council All this is plain and just And in the first place no body can think it strange we should distinguish the Churches Tenets from those which are falsely imputed to her When Persons are animated beyond measure for want of a right understanding and when strange prejudices move great disputes there is nothing more natural nothing more charitable then to explicate matters clearly The Holy Fathers practised a way fraudless and calm like this to set men right again Whilst the Arians and Semi-Arians decryed the Symbol of Nice and the Consubstantiality of the Son by the false Ideas they fixed upon them St. Athanasius and St. Hilarius the two most illustrious defenders of the Nicene Faith represented to them the true sense of the Councils and St. Hilarius said to them S. Hil. lib. de syn Let us both together condemn false Interpretations but not destroy the certainty of Faith The Word Consubstantial may be mis-understood let us resolve how we may rightly understand it We may lay down the true state of Faith betwixt us if we do not overthrow what has been rightly established but remover mis-understanding It is Charity it self which dictates such words and suggests such
difficulty from such Consequences by this short answer of M. Daille and tell them that the Catholic Church disavowing them they cannot be imputed to her without Calumny But I will go yet further and show these Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion by the sole Exposition of our Doctrine that the Catholic Church is so far from ruining the Fundamental Articles of Faith either directly or indirectly that on the contrary she establishes them after so solid and evident a manner that no one can question her right understanding of them without great injustice SECT III. Religious Worship is terminated in God alone TO begin with that Adoration which is due to God alone the Catholic Church teaches us that it consists principally in believing he is the Creator and Lord of all things and in adhering to him with all the Powers of our Soul by Faith Hope and Charity as to him alone who can render us happy by the Communication of an infinite Good which is himself This interiour Adoration which we render to God in Spirit and in Truth has its exteriour marks of which the principal is Sacrifice which cannot be offered to any but to God because a Sacrifice is established to make a publick acknowledgment and a solemn protestation of Gods Soveraignity and our absolute dependance The same Church teaches us that all Religious worship ought to terminate in God as its necessary end and that if the honour which she renders to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints may in some sence be called Religious it is for its necessary Relation to God But before we explicate any further in what this honour consists it will not be unuseful to take notice how those of the Pretended Reformation obliged by the strength of truth begin to acknowledge that the custom of praying to Saints and honouring their Reliques was established even in the fourth age of the Church Monsieur Daille grants thus much in that book he published against the Tradition of the Latin Church about the object of Religious worship and accuses St. Basil St. Ambrose St. Hierome St. John Chrysostom St. Augustin and many more of those famous Lights of Antiquity who lived in that Age and above all St. Gregory Nazianzen who is called the Divine by excellence of having altered in this point the Doctrine of the three foregoing ages But it will not appear very likely that M. Daille should understand the Sentiments of the Fathers of the first three Ages better then those who gathered as I may say the succession of their Doctrine after their deaths and this will be so much the less credible because the Fathers of the fourth Age were so far from perceiving that they introduced any novelty in that worship that this Minister on the contrary has quoted several express Texts by which he shows clearly that they pretended in Praying to Saints to follow the example of their Predecessors But without any further examination what might be the Sentiments of the Fathers of the three first ages I will content my self with what M. Daille is pleased to grant who allows us so many great men who taught the Church in the fourth age For tho' he has taken upon him twelve hundred years after their deaths to give them in derision the name of a kind of Sect calling them Reliquarists that is to say Relique honourers yet I hope those of his Communion will have more respect for these great men They dare not at least accuse them of falling into Idolatry by praying to Saints or of destroying that trust which Christians ought to put in JESVS CHRIST and it is to behoped henceforwards they will not reproach these things to us when they consider they cannot do it without accusing at the same time these excellent men whose sanctity and learning they profess a reverence for as well as we But seeing our design is here to expound our belief rather then to show who were the defenders of it we must continue our explication SECT IV. Invocation of Saints THe Church in teaching us that it is profitable to pray to Saints teaches us to pray to them in the same Spirit of Charity and according to the same order of fraternal society which moves us to demand assistance of our brethren living upon Earth and the Catechism of the Council of Trent concludes from this Doctrine that if the quality of Mediator Cat. Rom. part 3. tit De Cultu Invoc Sanct. which the Scripture gives to JESVS CHRIST received any prejudice from the Intercession made to the Saints who Reign with God it would receive no less from the Intercession made to the faithful who live with us This Catechism shows us clearly the extream difference betwixt our manner of imploring God's assistance and that of imploring the aid of Saints For saith it we pray to God either to give us good things Part 4. tit Quis orandus sit or to deliver us from evil but because the Saints are more acceptable to him than we are we beg of them to undertake our cause and to obtain for us those things we stand in need of From whence it comes to pass that we use two very different forms of Prayer for to God the proper manner of speaking is to say HAVE PITY ON VS HEAR OVR PRAYER whereas we only desire the Saints TO PRAY FOR VS From whence we ought to understand that in what Terms soever those prayers which we address to Saints are couched the intention of the Church and of her faithful reduces them always to this form as the Catechism presently after confirms Ibid. But it is good to consider the words of the Council it self which prescribing to Bishops how they ought to speak of the Invocation of Saints Sess 25. Dec. de Invoc c. obliges them to teach that the Saints who reign with JESUS CHRIST offer up to God their prayers for men that it is good and profitable to invocate them after an humble manner and to have recourse to their prayers aid and assistance to obtain of God his Benefits through our Lord JESUS CHRIST his Son who is our sole Saviour and Redeemer After which the Council condemns those who teach a contrary Doctrine We see then to invocate the Saints according to the sense of this Council is to have recourse to their prayers for obtaining benefits from God through JESVS CHRIST So that in reality we do not obtain those benefits which we receive by the intercession of the Saints otherwise then through JESVS CHRIST and in his name seeing these Saints themselves pray in no other manner than through JESVS CHRIST and are not heard but in his name This is the Faith of the Church which the Council of Trent has clearly explicated in few words After which we cannot imagine that any one should accuse us of forsaking JESVS CHRIST when we beseech his members who are also ours his Children who are our Brethren and his Saints who are
entirely washed away by the Blood of JESVS CHRIST and by the grace of regeneration which is so far from obscuring or lessening that Idea which we ought to have of the merit of this Blood on the contrary it heightens and augments it So that the Justice of JESVS CHRIST is not only imputed but actually communicated to the faithful by the operation of the Holy Spirit in so much that they are not only reputed but rendred just by his grace If that Righteousness which is in us were only such in the eyes of men it would not be the work of the holy Ghost It is then a righteousness and that before God seeing it is God himself who produces it in us by pouring forth his charity in our hearts Nevertheless it is too true that the flesh rebels against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit against the flesh and that we all offend in many things Jam. 3.2 So that tho our Justice be truly such by the infusion of his Charity yet it is not perfect Justice because of the combat of Concupiscence In so much that the continual sighings of a soul penitent for her offences is the most necessary duty of a Christian righteousness which obliges us to confess humbly with St. Augustin that our Justice in this life consists rather in the remission of sin than in the perfection of Vertues SECT VII Merits of Good Works AS to the merit of Good works Sess 6. c. 16. the Catholic Church teacheth us that eternal life ought to be proposed to the children of God both as a Grace which is mercifully promised to them by the mediation of our Lord JESUS CHRIST and as a recompence which is faithfully rendred to their good works and merits in vertue of this promise These are the proper terms of the Council of Trent But least human pride should flatter it self with an opinion of a presumptuous merit the same Council teacheth us that all the price and value of a Christians works proceeds from the sanctifying grace which is given us gratis in the name of JESVS CHRIST Ibid. and that it is an effect of the continual influence of this divine Head upon its Members Really the Precepts Exhortations Promises Threatnings and Reproaches of the Gospel show clearly enough we must work out our salvation by the cooperation of our wills together with the grace of God assisting us But it is one of our first Principles that the free-will can act nothing conducing to eternal happiness but as it is moved and elevated by the Holy Ghost So that the Church knowing it is this divine Spirit which works in us by his Graces all the good we do she is obliged to believe the good works of the Faithful very acceptable to God and of great consideration before him and it is just she should make use of the word Merit with all Christian antiquity whereby she may principally denote the value the price and the dignity of those works which we perform through grace But seeing all their Sanctity comes from God who produces them in us the same Church has in the Council of Trent received these words of St. Augustin as a doctrine of Catholic Faith that God crowns his own gifts in crowning the merits of his Servants We beg of those who love Truth and Peace that they would be pleased here to read a little more at length the words of this Council to the end they may once for all disabuse themselves of those false inpressions which has been given them concerning our doctrine Although we see Sess 6. c. 16. say the Fathers in this Council that holy writ esteems Good works so much That JESUS CHRIST himself promises that a glass of cold water given to the poor shall not want its reward and that the Apostle testifies how a moment of light pain endured in this world shall produce an eternal weight of Glory nevertheless God forbid a Christian should glory in himself and not in our Lord whose bounty is so great to all men that he will have those gifts which he bestowes upon them to be their merits This doctrine is dispersed throughout the whole Council which teacheth us in another Session Sess 14. c. 8. that we who can do nothing of our selves can do all things with him who strengthens us in such sort that man has nothing of which he may glory nor for which he may confide in himself but all his confidence and all his glory is in JESUS CHRIST in whom we live in whom we merit in whom we satisfy bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance which draw their vertue from him and by him are offered to his Father and accepted of by his Father through him Wherefore we ask all things we hope all things we render thanks for all things through our Lord JESVS CHRIST We confess aloud we are not acceptable to God but in and by him and we cannot comprehend why any other thought should be attributed to us We so place all the hopes of our salvation in him that we dayly make use of these words to God in the Sacrifice Vouchsafe O God to grant to us sinners thy servants who hope in the multitude of thy mercies some part and society with the Blessed Apostles and Martyers into whose number we beseech thee to be pleased to receive us not looking upon our merits but gratiously pardoning us in the name of JESUS CHRIST our Lord. Will the Church never be able to perswade her Children now become her adversaries neither by the Exposition of her Faith nor by the Decisions of her Councils nor by the Prayers in her Sacrifice that her belief is that she can have no life but in JESVS CHRIST and that she has no hope but in him This hope is so firm it makes the Children of God who walk faithfully in his wayes to find a peace which surpasseth all understanding as the Apostle tells us Phil. 4.7 But tho this hope be stronger than the promises and menaces of the world and sufficient to calm the troubles of our Conciences yet it does not wholy extinguish Fear for tho we be assured God will never abandon us of his own accord yet we are never certain we shall not lose him by our own fault in rejecting his inspirations He has been pleased by this saving fear to mitigate that confidence which he has infused into his children because as St. Augustin tells us such is our infirmity in this place of Temptations and dangers that an absolute security would produce tepidity and pride in us whereas this fear which according to the Apostles command makes us work out our salvation with trembling Phil. 2.12 renders us more vigilant and makes us rely with a more humble dependance upon him who works in us by his Grace both to will and to do according to his good pleasure as the same St. Paul expresses it Thus you have seen what is most necessary in the
a Power which has Dominion over universal Nature The Son of God has no more difficulty to render his Body present in the Eucharist by saying This is my Body than to Cure a Woman of her Infirmity Luc. 13.12 by saying Woman thou art freed from thy Infirmity or to preserve the Life of a young Man by saying to his Father John 4.50 Thy Son liveth or to forgive the Sins of the Man sick of the Palsy Mat. 9.2 by saying to him Thy Sins are forgiven thee So that not troubling our selves how he will execute what he has said we rest precisely upon his words He who does what he will by speaking does what he pleases and it was more easy for the Son of God to force the Laws of Nature to verify his word than it is for us to accommodate our Understandings to these kind of violent Interpretations which break the Laws of common Discourse These Laws of Discourse teach us that a sign which represents a thing naturally receives often the name of the thing represented being as it were its nature to bring the Idea of the thing into the Mind The same also happens tho with some restriction to instituted Signs when they are received and Persons accustomed to them But that in establishing a Sign which has no relation to the thing as for example a Morsel of Bread to signify the Body of a Man the name of the thing signified should be given to it with out any Explication and before any agreement as JESVS CHRIST has done in his last Supper is a thing unheard of and of which we find no example in holy Writ not to say in any Language Neither do the Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion so fix themselves to the figurative Sense which they would give to these words of JESVS CHRIST but that they do at the same time acknowledge he had intention in pronouncing them to give us in reality his Body and Blood SECT XI Explication of these Words Do this in remembrance of me AFter having proposed the Sentiments of the Church touching these words This is my Body we must explicate what she thinks of those others which JESVS CHRIST added Do this in remembrance of me It is manifest the intention of the Son of God is to oblige us by these words Luc. 22.19 to remember the Death which he has endured for our Salvation 1 Cor. 1â— 24 and St. Paul concludes from these same words that we declare the Death of our Saviour in this Mystery But they must not perswade themselves 2 Cor. 11.26 that remembrance of our Saviours Death excludes the real Presence of his Body on the contrary if they consider what we have lately explicated they will clearly understand this Commemoration to be grounded upon the real Presence For as the Jews in eating of the Peace-Offerings remembred they had been immolated for them in the same manner in eating of the flesh of JESVS CHRIST our Victim we ought to remember he died for us This very flesh then eaten by the Faithful not only renews in us the memory of his immolation but confirms also to us the reality of it And we are so far from having reason to say that this solemn Commemoration which JESVS CHRIST ordains us to make excludes the Presence of his Body that on the contrary we see this tender remembrance which he would have us to make at the Holy Table of him as immolated for us is grounded upon this that this very flesh ought to be there taken really seeing in effect it is not possible for us to forget it was for us he gave his Body in Sacrifice when we see he daily gives us the same Victime to eat Must Christians under pretence of celebrating in the Lords Supper the memory of the Passion of our Saviour deprive this Pious Commemoration of what it has most efficacious and tender in it Ought they not to consider that JESVS CHRIST does not command them only to remember him but to remember him in eating of his Flesh and Blood Consider the Connexion and the force of his words He does not say simply as those of the Pretended Reformation seem to understand him That the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist should be to us a Memorial of his Body and Blood but he advertises us that in doing what he has prescribed that is in receiving his Body and Blood we should remember him What is there in reality more powerful to make us remember him And if Children do so tenderly remember their Parents and their Bounties towards them when they approach the Tombs where their Bodies are interred how ought our Remembrance and our Love to be excited when we possess under these sacred Vails under this mystical Sepulchre this living and Life-giving Flesh and this Blood yet flowing with his Love and full of Spirit and Grace But if our Adversaries continue to tell us That he who commands us to remember him does not give us his proper Substance we must in fine desire them to agree amongst themselves They profess not to deny the real Communication of the proper substance of the Son of God in the Eucharist If their words are serious if their Doctrine be not an illusion they must necessarily say with us the remembrance does not exclude all kinds of Presence but only that which strikes the Senses Their Answer shall be ours seeing that tho we affirm JESVS CHRIST to be present yet we acknowledg at the same time that he is not present after a sensible manner And if it should be demanded how it comes to pass that believing as we do the Senses to have nothing to do in this Mystery we should not believe it sufficient that JESVS CHRIST should be present by Faith It is easie to answer and to clear this Equivocal Objection It is one thing to say the Son of God is present to us by Faith and another thing to say we know by Faith that he is present The first manner of speaking imports only a moral presence but the second signifies to us a very real one because our Faith is most real and this real Presence known by Faith Habac. 2.4 is sufficient to work all the forementioned Effects in the Just Man who lives by Faith SECT XII Exposition of the Calvanists Doctrine concerning the real Presence BUT to remove all the Equivocations which Calvinists make use of in this matter and show at the same time how near they have approached to us it will be convenient to add here the exposition of their Sentiments tho I only undertook to explicate the Doctrine of the Church Their Doctrine has two parts the one speaks of nothing but the Figure and the other of nothing but the Reality of the Body and Blood We shall see each of these parts in order They tell us first This great Miracle of the real Presence which we admit is useless that it is enough for our Salvation JESVS