the Sacrament of the Eucharist they could not retranch one without ruining the whole Sacrament intirely We must not therefore dissemble that we regard not the Communion in the Roman Church as a Sacrament They may not therefore wonder that we cannot Communicate with them while it shall remain in the state wherein it is 4. Finally We must remark that this Retranchment of the Cup which they would reckon for nothing doth oppose and ruine all the Ends for which the Eucharist hath been established We have already seen that it ruins the Efficacy of the Grace of God which he would convey to us in that Sacrament Besides that we must remember that our Lord Jesus Christ did Institute it to be an Image of his death As often as you shall eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup you shall shew forth the Lords death Now after the Remark of Monsieur de Condom himself the lively and efficacious Representation of the lively Death which our Lord suffered is not found but in that his Flesh and his Blood are mystically separated For indeed a Flesh cannot be living when it is separated from its Blood and for the fit Representation of Jesus as dead we must see his Flesh and his Blood separated It is then very evident that they which give the People but one Sign which give the Flesh and Blood Mystically conjoyned do not give in their Communion the lively and efficacious Representation of the Violent Death which our Lord suffered It is further certain that this Divine Sacrament hath been instituted as a Sacred Repast that should teach us in a Mysterious manner that our Souls shall find in the Lord Jesus Christ compleat Nourishment therefore it hath been established under the two Signs of Bread and Wine which are sufficient to nourish the Body and that signifies that the Grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient to nourish our Souls But is it not evident that in Retranching the Cup they ruine this excellent Mystery Can one live with Bread alone can a Body be sustain'd with Meat without Drink And the Grace of Jesus Christ that makes our Souls to live is it sufficiently represented by a kind of Repast with which one must necessarily die This Sacrament was also instituted to be a common Repaâ—t a Feast of Society among many Brethren for to nourish Charity and entertain the Union of the Faithful Therefore the Ancients said that this Union was mystically represented by the Union of many grains of Wheat which compose one Loaf of Bread and by that of many grains of Raisons which compose one Wine It is then a Family Repast this Sacrament but where was there ever seen a Repast where only Meat is given and not Drink Certainly those Hereticks which St. Cyprian condemns because they would use only Water in the Eucharist were less Cruel and did less ruine the Mysteries of this Sacrament For there at least in their Eucharist there was both Meat and Drink and that is it which is essential to every Repast Thenceforth therefore let them talk no more of this as of a business little important which destroys the Sacrament of the Eucharist which ruins the Efficacy of it and which opposes all the Ends for which it was instituted Monsieur de Condom hath put himself behind a Retranchment wherein he conceives that we cannot force him It is an old wrangle about one Article of our Discipline which permits such as have an invincible aversion for Wine to Communicate under the sole kind of Bread This Example shews that Monsieur de Condom is not very ambitious of speaking always things that are novel and sublime for there is no Missionary so small that hath not treated this difficulty in the very dust of Publick places and that hath not declaim'd thereon from the very Stalks Yet now must we consider it as having somewhat in it seeing a Man of Merit and Weight would have it so They have judged saith he by this Rule that both Kinds were not Essential to Communion by the Institution of Jesus Christ otherwise they must have refused wholly the Sacrament to those that could not receive it wholly entire I wonder that these Gentlemen do not also argue against us that we have dispensed Blind men from Reading God's Word the Deaf from Hearing and the Dumb from Singing the Praises of their Creatour I always thought that no Man was obliged to Impossibilities To hear God's Word and implore his Name are at least as necessary to Salvation as participation of Sacraments yet the Deaf and the Dumb are dispens'd because of Impossibility Our Discipline speaks of Persons which have an invincible Aversion for Wine that can neither Smell nor Taste it and much less swallow it We dispense not those Persons from taking the Wine it is Nature that dispenses them putting into them an insuperable Obstacle from the reception of Wine It 's not therefore We that give this Dispensation nor that divide the Sacrament To explain my self more neatly I say there are two sorts of Commands Some are Negative which ordain the abstaining such as be the Prohibitions for Example of committing Adultery or Murther of falling into Idolatry Some are Affirmative which order us to do for Example Giving of Alms Visiting the Sick Comfort the Afflicted The first sort do always oblige and in all Circumstances for it is never permitted to commit Adultery to Rob or commit Murther But the Affirmatives oblige not but within certain Circumstances and under condition of Possibility The Command of partaking of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is one of those Commands Affirmative which oblige not but in such Occasions wherein it is possible A Man that hath no Goods is dispens'd from giving Alms. He that hath no Feet cannot Visit the Sick He that hath no Tongue is dispens'd from Comforting the Afflicted Likewise he that cannot absolutely drink Wine is dispens'd by this absolute Impossibility Methinks a Man must be blinded with his Prejudices beyond all that can be said to compare things so different and to say We dispense a particular Man among an hundred Thousand from taking the Cup because he cannot drink Wine therefore it is permitted willingly and without necessity to take away the Cup from all Christian People I am sensible that those Doctours will not be content herewith and that they will say However tell us if what this Man takes that communicates with you under the Sign of Bread without Wine is a true Sacrament If it be a true Sacrament why should not that be One which we present to our People I Answer That what we offer to this Man is a true Sacrament because we offer him both the Signs yea we oblige him to take the Cup in his hand And what the Roman Church presents to their Communicants is not a true Sacrament because she gives them nothing but Bread But they will say What he receives among you that cannot drink the Wine is not
have been borrowed or imitated from those Religions with whom Christian Religion should in honour have nothing Common They have been introduced under the Pretence of Helping Devotion and we find on the contrary that fastning our Spirit to the Bark of Religion it hinders him from piercing into its Internals The Hearts and Spirits of the Vulgar are but of a small Capacity When they are filled with those Multitudes of Ceremonies true Piety finds no more place The People see Churches magnificently Adorn'd Images Statues Priests that celebrate Mysteries with great Pomp they see a Worship composed of a great number of Mystical Actions whereof they know neither signification nor end and all that covered with the Veil of a Strange Tongue This Composure of Ceremonies which hath a great Air of Magnificence surprizes the Senses strikes the Imagination dazles their feeble Lights occupies the Capacities of their hearts and fills them with an odd kind of Admiration and of a confused Veneration meerly Corporal and Mechanical whereby they believe they do satisfie their Duty abundantly The more Superficies that a Body hath the less Solidity Ceremonies are the Superficies of Religion and it is certain that they produce a Superficial Piety For the most they that are the worst Christians are they that do most give up themselves to these Appearances and who are the most exact in the Observations of these Ceremonies So may one say truly that they compose a Veil and a Refuge for Hypocrisie An Hypocrite that will not submit to that Obedience which God demands and that will not renounce such a Crime is content to pay God with Ceremonies He essays to satisfie his Conscience therewithal and perswades himself that God should be contented therewith This affected Magnificence is unworthy the Grandeur and Majesty of Religion Her Mysteries are too beautiful to be hid and this great Apparel of Ceremonies is not as they believe a Garment for her Ornaments but it is a pompous Tomb wherein she lies buried There is no need of placing Mysteries in Habits in Gestures and in Visible Actions Religion hath Mysteries abundantly sufficient to fill the Heart and occupy the Spirit The Perfection of Religion consists in exposing the Native Beauties of her Mysteries to the clear sight of Men. Therefore the most perfect of Religions is that of the Blessed Souls that see all Mysteries without Veils The least perfect of Religions was that of Moses which did cover all her Mysteries under the Shadows of her Ceremonies It 's plain that Christian Religion holds the Middle between the Religion of the glorified Saints which hath no Ceremonies and that of the Jews which was wholly made up of them Therefore she must have some Ceremonies which are the Sacraments but she must have but few and to load her therewith is to bring back Judaism In fine We have a just Reason to refuse all Reconciliation with the Multitude of those Ceremonies they have produced part of those Evils whereof we complain at this day There are some of them which were introduced in the beginning without any ill Intention but afterwards they have thence drawn Consequences which have ruined the Truth In the First Ages there was nothing more simple than the Celebration of the Eucharist Justin Martyr tells us That they took Wine that they mixed it with Water that they Blessed it together with the Bread and that they distributed it to the Assistants by the hands of the Deacons But the ill understood Devotion of the following Ages did swell up this Sacrament with great Numbers of Ceremonies They that followed after in those Ages of Ignorance did judge that the Body of Jesus Christ was at least really under them seeing they did celebrate this Mystery with so much Pomp. And in fine Finding in the Sacrament all the Ceremonies of a Sacrifice it became easie to them to fall into the Conceit that indeed it is a Propitiatory Sacrifice This is a part of the Reasons which make us to regard this great Heap of Ceremonies as a Worship wherein we never ought to Communicate III. Monsieur de Condom in the Matter of the Eucharist and of the Sacrifice of the Mass hath not said one word of Mases without Communicants I know not why for he could not be ignorant that we regard that as a great Affair Indeed one cannot imagine a greater Metamorphosis than that which they have introduced thereby into the Sacrament of the Eucharist It is certainly clear by the History of the Institution and by the 11 th Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians that the Lord had given this Sacrament to be a Repast of Union and Charity wherein all the Faithful were to have their part Every one ought to Eat and Drink therein in memory of the Benefit of the Death of his Saviour And they have made thereof a Spectacle of Devotion where there is but one Actor and all the Faithful are but Spectatours The Author of the Institution saith Eat and Drink all and at this day One only Eats and Drinks the Devotion of all the rest consists only in Regarding and Contemplating I could shew That there is nothing so remote from God's Intention nothing so opposite to the Ends for which this Sacrament hath been Instituted But I will only be content to say That such a Thing in the Primitive Ages would have passed for a Prodigy If there should have been a great Assembly of Men Professing to be Christians in the midst whereof at the Celebration of Mysteries the Pastour only had Eaten the Faithful entring in would have taken them for a Company of Reprobates and for a Church of Manicheans who had in honour the Creatures of God and Wine above all These Gentlemen are too Learned to be ignorant of this Truth There remains yet a Proof thereof in their Canon Law where we read That when Consecration is finished all must Communicate or be put out of the Church for the Apostles have so Ordained and the Roman Church observe it so IV. I have but one Word to say it 's about the Yoke of the Celibat which they impose on so many Persons in the Roman Church God forbid that we should blame the pure and voluntary Celibat We say as St. Paul that it were to be wished that the Ministers of the Gospel were as He they could serve then both with less distraction and with more Zeal the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Faithful But we cannot tolerate a Forced Celibat which they impose on so many Men and so many Women who are engaged either by Inconsideration or by the Violence of their Superiours into a state for which they are not fit at all The design of finding an Establishment in the World to have a Benefice whereon they might live engages the Priests into the said Celibat and that is done without having in the least consulted their Heart and their Conscience In all Families a Boy must
Zeal with Violence So that in the Eyes of Flesh the true faithful Ones do appear Luke-warm and the Euemies of Truth do pass for true Zealots When Human Passions do mingle themselves in those Sentiments of Hearts called Religion there is no Excess that they are not capable of In respect of other Objects in the midst of their greatest Transports they do reproach themselves secretly which stops their fury and steal away some part of their Impetuousness and chiefly when they are allay'd and consider in cold blood their Conduct past they do often accuse their own selves But contrarily here Passions do sollicite and animate themselves they make Merit of their Violence and believe that God and his Church are concern'd in their Justification because they imagine that they have labour'd for the Truth This is one of the Reasons why often Men believe that they see but little Zeal in the true Church while there is so much Fire in the Conduct of Them that endeavour her Ruine But we must needs grant that there is something more The Moderation of the Faithful doth not alway proceed from that Sweet Spirit which is the very Genius of the Gospel It comes often from the coldness of their Zeal God permits it to oblige us to adore in Silence the Mysteries of his Conduct and to confound at the same time the Pride of Mans heart We have much less Love for the Truth than the World and the Devil have of Hatred against it And whilst we act in the Establishment of Religion by a Principle of Self-love we have quite another kind of Ardor than when we have no other prospect than that of the Glory of God The Church doth easily relent the fervour of the Zeal which seeks the Conversion of Others doth not last long It is so hard a thing to seek for Salvation that Men imagine they do enough to labour for their own without charging themselves with the Care of Others And we easily fall into those unhappy Thoughts That God is good enough to do his own Business that he will have a care of his own Interest and that he will not want Means to Convert them whom he hath destined to eternal Salvation Whereas false Zeal doth hold it self up doth persevere and finds it self often more capable to endure greater Labours than the true Devotion It is a thing that confounds us I grant it 's one of the great Temptations which good Souls are to overcome But truly it 's a Thing whereof it 's impossible to deny the Truth if we have any thing of good Faith or Probity Our Lord Jesus Christ himself doth teach us that the Pharisees and the false Doctors of Judaism did compass Sea and Land to make a Proselyte and all their labours did conclude to render Him a Son of Hell likes themselves All those things do make me conclude That the Zeal to make Conversions is not always a certain Sign that the Truth is in that Party It is a favourable Prejudice but after all it 's but a Prejudice and we should not suffer our selves to be conducted by those kinds of Lights which are often deceitful We must be permitted to examine If the Zeal of Religion which causes so many Emotions be a Divine fire or a Passion meerly Humane Now we cannot better know the Nature of that Zeal which seeks for Conversions than by the Means which it employs for it 's an indubitable Principle That true Piety never doth any ill that good may come thereof She seeks the Salvation of Men but she seeks it by ways that are just lawful and rational I. First It is certain that true Zeal doth never employ for Conversion the Sword Fire Violence and Torments Those are ill Commentators of the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ that make him to say Compel them to come in that is to say Constrain them by Violence and by the fear of Death to enter into the Church which is the Wedding Room The Lord cannot suffer in that Wedding Room any but such as are clad with the Wedding Garment and which have a true and solid Piety But those People which are brought into the Church by Fear and Threatnings are Hypocrites and Impious Persons which disrobe their Impiety to the sight of Men Rebels which feign their Submission meditate a Revolt and which always bear the heart of an Enemy The Church hath suffered many Persecutions but never did execute any upon others She overcame Paganism as Paganism had overcome her before but she never did retaliate it She did not use the Authority of Constantine and Theodosius to defile the Temples of the False gods with the Blood of their Worshippers as the Pagans had employ'd the Swords of Nero's Maximius Decius and Diocletian's to bathe the Earth with the Blood of Christians One must be very ignorant in the History of the Church not to know that in all the Contests She had with the Arrians Eutychians and other Hereticks She used only Exhortations Reasons Councils and other such like Arms. Contrarily the Hereticks have carried on their Fury against the living Temples of the Holy Ghost they have employed Sword and Fire and established themselves by the help of the Horrour and of the fear of Death which their Arms did cast into Mens Souls I know not if there be at this day in the Church of Rome any honest People that do not behold those horrid Tragedies which have shed so much Blood in the Ages past but as so many Accesses of Fury and a phrentick Fever during which Christianity arm'd against it self made it a pleasure and a duty to shed its own Blood and thrust the cruel Sword into its own Bowels If mens Souls be to be brought to Christ Jesus by Fear it must be by the fear of Hell and by the dread of Gods Judgments Knowing saith St. Paul the Terrour of the Lord we perswade men to the Faith 2 Cor. 5. II. Hope is also one of the Ways whereby the Souls of Men are more strongly drawn But to bring Men to Jesus Christ no other Hope is to be given them but that which the Lord himself gives them One must promise them exactly what he hath himself promised them that is Eternal life these are the Rewards of Heaven Whosoever shall forsake Father Mother Children Wife goods or house he shall receive an hundred fold in eternal life I find not that he hath presented any other Objects to Men to perswade them to come to him All the World agrees that nothing is more base than to betray the Truth and ones own Conscience for Interest Buy the Truth and sell it not saith the Wise man I speak not only of those Truths which are of the highest import and whereon depends Salvation I speak of Truth in general It 's one of the richest Presents of Heaven seeing it is to the Soul what Light is to the World and to renounce it for a base Interest it 's to despise
the Truth Mean while we declare that Real Presence precisely in it self and without its Attendants is the least of our Controversies about the Eucharist that Adoration Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the Retranchment of the Cup and Masses without Communicants seem to us much more important That those Attendants are not according to us Natural Attendants of the Real Presence precisely in it self they are false and evil Consequences which Men have drawn out of it For it is but a bad Reasoning in our Judgment to say The Body of Jesus Christ is Spiritually and Invisibly under the Accidents of Bread and Wine therefore it must be Sacrificed therefore it must be adored and we must retrench the Cup from the People That is it which we shall particularly demonstrate But before that I shall give a Third Advice upon what Monsieur of Condom saith about the importance of the Controversie of the Real Presence It is that granting it to be important he dissembles all the Importance thereof There is nothing saith he that appears more important in our Controversies seeing the question is of the Presence of Jesus Christ himself The Question is not only of that but 1. The Question is Whether we shall oppose all the Lights of our Senses which say that the Signs of the Eucharist are Bread and Wine and if we shall believe that God doth continually offer Illusion to our Senses which is opposite to his Verity and to his Purity 2. The Question is Whether we must suppose that God doth every Moment and without necessity violate the Laws of Nature that are most inviolable which is opposite to his Wisdom 3. The Question is Whether we shall receive a Theology whereof the Consequences destroy all Christian Religion a Theology which confounds Body and Soul and takes away the Bounds that distinguish them A Doctrine which supposing the Flesh of Christ becomes Spiritual Invisible subsisting under a Point confounds the Body with the Soul For I know not how else we can define the Properties of the Soul but in saying She is Invisible without Extension without Space and concluded under a Point This Doctrine also confounds Human Nature with the Divine for it gives to the Flesh of Jesus Christ that which belongs only to his Divinity that is to be in many Places at once and be able to fill Heaven and Earth It destroys the Article of Ascension and robs the Church of that Proof which she made use of against those Hereticks who denied the Truth of the Human Nature of Jesus Christ sor they opposed them by a Proof drawn from thence That during the Life of the Lord Men had always seen in him all the Actions the Motions and Properties of Man This Reasoning will be nothing worth if a Body can be without its Properties and if the Properties of a Body can be without a Body 4. The Question is Whether Men may settle such a manner of Interpreting Scripture which will overthrow all Scripture and will give place to all Heresies if by one passage alone one must explain an hundred others which seem to say the contrary or if by the hundred one should explain that which is alone For for one only passage that saith That that which we see in the Eucharist is the Body of Jesus Christ there are seven or eight others which say formally That it is Bread and Wine The Bread that we break Whosoever shall eat this Bread Whensoever you eat of this Bread Let every one eat of this Bread 5. The Question is to know Whether we will belie our Lord Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Ghost who tells us That we shall not have him always with us that he was going to Heaven that the Heaven must hold him till the restoration of all things 6. The Question is to know Whether to avoid a Natural Figure in these Words This is my Body we shall expose Christian Religion to the scandal of Infidels yea to the greatest Scandal that can be imagined For in fine whilst they shall be able to reproach us That we eat our own God it is certain they will never come to us 7. The Question is Whether we should ruine one of the Sacraments of the Church in destroying the Bread in nullifying the Sign and substituting in its place the Thing signified 8. The Question is to know Whether we should draw down the Lord of Glory from the Throne of his Majesty to nullifie him a second time but with an Annihilation greater than that which he descended into after his Incarnation The Question is to know If this be to respect Jesus Christ our Lord sufficiently to call him down back by the help of three Words ill explained to place him in Impure places to expose him to be trod under feet to be eaten by the Profane to be mingled with Poyson and with Death and to a thousand other Dangers that one dares not express 9. The Question is to know finally If for a Corporal Communion without which one may be saved and wherewith one may be damned and which consequently is not necessary to Salvation we must overthrow all the Rules of Reason of good Sense of Grace and of Nature I know not if after all this any one shall be able to say again Reality and Transubstantiation are not an Affair that should retain you nor hinder you from re-entring into the Roman Church Monsieur of Condom saith thereupon Two things which are to the purpose and which are to be examined The first is That we have shortned our selves those great Spaces of Separation They have approached nearer to us saith he it is because we admit a Presence real It is because our Catechism saith That Jesus Christ makes us partakers of his proper substance and our Confession of Faith That he nourishes us with the Substance of his Body and Blood It is because we say That although Jesus Christ be truly communicated to to us by Baptism and by the Gospel nevertheless it is but in part and not fully Thereupon my Lord of Condom Reasons after his manner and as seems him good Behold then saith he the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present in our Mysteries by the Grant of Calvinists Behold Jesus Christ received in his proper Substance Jesus Christ is given us in the Eucharist in a manner which suits neither Baptism nor the Gospel and which is wholly proper to this Mystery It follows then that this Participation is not fixed to the Faith seeing that Faith being diffused generally through all the Actions of a Christian is found in the Preaching and in Baptism First I would fain know what Service all this doth to the principal purpose of Monsieur de Condom which is to reapproach us to himself Are we nearer thereto because of some resemblance in the Terms Though we had ill explained our Doctrine and by Incommodious Terms have we then changed it at the bottom And doth not he
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
give us Aversion for the Doctrine of Reality whose Attendants should be so strange and would tend to establish a New Sacrifice that is to say a New Religion But we cannot agree that the Sacrifice of the Mass be an Attendant of the Real Presence It may be an Issue if Men please because it followed after it and that they have made a Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Eucharist only after they had imagined a Real Presence of the Flesh of Jesus Christ But it is an Issue which hath no foundation but in Illusion for in truth it is clear That the Flesh of Jesus Christ in whatever manner it be given us is only given us but to be Eaten and not to be Sacrificed seeing the Lord commands us to Eat his Flesh and never ordains it to be Sacrificed If the Real Presence did necessarily induce the Sacrifice it were because Men should Sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ wherever he is Were it so he were then to be Sacrificed in Heaven So in this place no more then about Adoration we cannot grant that the Catholick Romans do Reason more Consequentially than the Lutherans because these which hold the Real Presence do not yet make a Sacrifice of the Eucharist Yet once more I have no design either to prove nor refute and I will hold me religiously within the Bounds which I have mark'd out for my self Therefore I will not examine all that Monsieur de Condom saith to expound the Epistle to the Hebrews It is one of his digressions done for swelling his Work He shall say whatever he pleases but he shall never make them believe who shall preserve but a little liberty of the Spirit that this Epistle be favourable to the Sacrifice of the Mass Never will Men comprehend the reason of the Silence of the Apostle upon this matter in a place where he treated to the bottom both of the Sacrifice and of the Christian Priesthood This were a manifest prevarication and if having wherewith to satisfie the Jews who would have by all means Visible Sacrifices he had not put into their hands the Sacrifice of the Mass to impose Silence on them Monsieur de Condom would believe he had done much if he could but draw this Epistle from laying so heavy upon his Party and had proved that it doth nothing against him Also hath he no other end in his Reflexion it is not a thing to be dispatch'd in Eight or Ten little Pages but though he had done it he had yet done nothing to purpose It is not enough to have proved that this Epistle contains not Proofs against the Sacrifice of the Mass They should find therein Proofs for this Sacrifice for it is there that they ought to be if there were any in the Scripture and if they find none in that place it is a prejudgment that they cannot be found in any part ARTICLE XIII Of the Retranchment of the Cup. BEhold the last of the Consequences of Transubstantiation and of the Real Presence it is the Retranchment of the Cup and Communion under one kind Monsieur de Condom finds in his Theology that it is so natural a Consequence thereof and so necessary that those who confess or tolerate Real Presence should find it no trouble to Communicate under one kind If it were true that the Retranchment of the Cup were a necessary Attendant of the Real Presence it were to us a new Reason against the receiving thereof but it concerns me little whether that Consequence be good or bad It is a Controversie which I leave to the Bohemians to dispatch and to the Germans French Bavarians and to so many others who did in the last Age demand with so much instance the Restitution of the Communion under both kinds and who notwithstanding believed Transubstantiation and the Real Presence I will say only Two things thereupon The first That the Church which during a Thousand years entire by the Confession of these Doctours Administred the Communion under both kinds did not believe the Retranchment of the Cup were a needful Attendant of the Real Presence seeing that if we believe them that same Church believed also that Real Presence I grant that it is an astonishing thing That during the Ten first Ages Men should not have that Scruple which they have had in the following In those Times when Men accounted it a greater honour to wear on their Face the mark of their Sex than they do this day I know not how then Men should not abhor to see after the Communion a thousand Bodies of Christ Jesus hanging at the Beard of a Mariner They have not thought of a Remedy to be sought for that Scandal but since Berengarius and since the establishing of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation One had need be very dull methink and thick Skulled not to be sensible that these new Precautions which they since that began to be thought of are an evident Proof that there hath been Innovation in the Doctrine The other thing I would say is That I found a Word in the Book of Monsieur de Condom which makes me suspect that himself is but ill perswaded that the Communion under one Kind is an Attendant of the Real Presence In the Consecration saith he the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are mystically separated because that Jesus Christ said separately This is my Body This is my Blood which doth include a lively and efficacious representation of the violent Death which he suffered If the Body and Blood be mystically separated in Consecration why should they not be so in the Communion If Jesus hath said separately This is my Body This is my Blood hath not he also said separately Eat Drink He that eats my Flesh and He that drinks my Blood In fine If the Signs be separated in this Sacrifice to induce a lively and efficacious representation of the violent Death of Jesus Christ why do they not also give them Separately at the Communion seeing they make there the Commemoration of that Violent Death and that Men participate there of the whole efficacy of that Death If Monsieur de Condom would thus Reason upon the Principles which he himself hath laid he should then Reason as Cajetan and many other Able Men have done who did believe Transubstantiation and the Real Presence All that may serve to make it appear that the Lutherans do not Reason so ill as Men would perswade us when they sever the Doctrine of the Real Presence from all those Attendants which they give it in the Roman Church But that is not my principal Affair Here it is It is to make known that Monsieur de Condom hath no reason for desiring to perswade us that this Retranchment of the Cup is nothing important and that it should not hinder us from Reunion to the Roman Church The Christian Religion according to us hath but Two Sacraments and should it be nothing important to us to see ravished from us the Moiety of