they had introduced into Christian Morality and having reduced them unto certain heads with a very neat and pure order which may be worthy to have the name of the particular Character of his Spirit But God permitted that when he had finished this so important Work he delivered it into the hands of a Doctor one of his Friends that he might communicate it unto others who were of known Learning and Zeal This Doctor acquitted himself faithfully in this Commission but those to whom he committed this Book that they might examine it being diverted therefrom by a multitude of affairs returned no answer unto him of a long time so that the Author continuing sick saw himself nigh unto death without knowing in a manner what was become of his Book and only understood that they judged it most worthy to be printed and that the Church might draw therefrom very great advantages if it pleased God to give it his blessing As therefore he proposed unto himself in this Work no other thing than to serve the Church this answer sufficed to banish out of his mind all the disquiet which he could have had thereabouts and he very easily and without farther trouble did wholly commit the care of it to Divine providence to which he had been always most submissive This submission notwithstanding hindred not but that some time before his death he recommended it unto another of his friends whom he knew to be very greatly concerned for every thing whereunto he had relation But this Friend being not able to address himself to any other save that Doctor who had not the Book any longer in his own hands and who could not himself learn thereof any news at all saw himself speedily after out of condition to serve both the Church and his Friend in such manner as he earnestly desired Some years past over in this uncertainty of what was become of this so precious a Work at which time God who had reserved unto himself the disposal thereof caused it to fall happily into the hands of a person who had no correspondence with its Author but seeing that it might be profitable to the Church thought himself obliged to contribute all his credit and power to its publication Here you have what was thought meet for the Readers to know concerning the History of this Book It were to be desired that we might speak here more openly concerning its Author but the Society of the Jesuits have accustomed themselves so to use those who endeavour to serve them by discovering unto them the excesses wherein they engage themselves and such is the implacable fury with which they pretend to have right according to their Maxims to persecute them as will not permit us to render unto his name the glory he hath therein deserved All that we can say therein to the end we may not leave those who come after us without knowing at least something of a person to whose zeal they will esteem themselves so much obliged is only this that he seemed to have been raised to combate and confound the Errours of these Fathers He had a mind facile clear and solid a sweetness and moderation in all respects charming an humility ingenuous beyond all that can be imagined stealing away the splendour of his other vertues from the eyes even of his most intimate Friends His education was admirable and contributed not a little to the beauty of his Spirit the purity of his Learning and the innocence of his Manners For he was born of a Father who had a care altogether peculiar to him to fortifie happily his Children against popular Errours to inspire into them the most pure Maxims of the Gospel and to enlarge their minds with the fairest speculations This so sage and so Christian conduct helped very much to augment the inclination which he had unto piety so that he had no sooner finished his course in Philosophy than he proceeded of himself to the study of Divinity to which he applyed himself with so great success that being received into the Colledge and Society of Sorbonne he performed all his acts with universal applause and thereupon received there the Doctors Cap. The only thing he had to combate with in this his laudable enterprise was the passionate affection which he had for the Mathematicks For as this Science is the most assured of all humane Sciences and almost the only one in which may be found any certainty capable to satisfie a Spirit which loves the truth the love which he had even to this truth it self wrought in him so violent an inclination to this Science that he could not withhold himself from applying and busying his thoughts therein for the inventing some or other new machine But at length the Holy Spirit which did conduct his Studies made him overcome in a little time the propension he had to these innocent inquiries and curiosities and he thought that it was not sufficient for a Divine to despise the divertisements of the world but that he ought also to deprive himself of those of his mind and he did only search after the truth where it was to be found that is to say in the Holy Scripture and in the Books of the holy Fathers So that we may well say of him what S. Gregory Nazianzene said in commendations of his Brother Caesarius who had greatly loved Astrology and the Mathematicks that he had the ingenuity to draw out of these sorts of Sciences all that was profitable therein learning thence to admire the invisible greatnesses of God which were resplendent in his works and knew to defend himself from that which was pernicious in them which is the adherence they have who apply themselves thereunto to their conjectures and to those truths which they pretend to discover therein This generous disengaging himself from all other things advantaged him not a little in the progress which he made in Ecclesiastical knowledge and in that part of Divinity which they call Scholastick which conducts Reason by the light of Faith and Tradition This his progress appeared more especially in the troubles which agitated the Faculty of Divinity of Paris in the year 1656. for he there defended the truth with so great moderation that he did not render it odious but on the contrary he did astonish and surprize his enemies The zeal he had for it was ardent but this ardour was tempered by his prudence and his knowledge was not less modest than his sweetness was couragious that there might be seen equally lightning in his discourse the regard which he had not to disoblige any person and the inflexible firmity which God had given him for the defence of his truth The wounds which that renowned Body received then in its Discipline entred very deep into his heart and the grief which he received therefrom increased by the consideration of the mischiefs which the Church was threatned with and which it resents unto this day began to alter his health
design to commit if he could all venial sins sinneth onely venially Escobar makes thereof a probleme proposing it in this manner l Habens voluntatem peccata omnia venialia perpetrandi peccat non peccat mortaliter Escobar Theol. Mor. l. 3. pag. 83. It may be held that he who hath a will to commit all venial sins sinneth mortally and it may also be said that he doth not sin mortally The reason for this second part of this probleme is the very principle that we now speak of m Non peccat quia malitia interni actus voluntat is desumitur ab objecto prout propenitur à ratione Sed objectum hujus internae voluntat is sunt omnia venialia nulla major malitia proponitur à ratione praeter venialem Ergo interna volunt as perpetrandi omnia peccata venialia non potest esse culpa lethalis Because that saith he the malice of an inward action of the will is taken from the object towards which it warps according as it is represented to it by the understanding But the object of this will are all venial sin and the malice which the understanding represents unto it is but venial and for that cause a will to commit all venial sins can be but a venial sin So that a man may have a will to commit all the venial sins which he can commit in the matter of theft and all those which can be committed by intemperance and by all other vices without sinning otherwise then venially that is to say that without mortal sin we may have a will to steal all the goods of the world if we could taking it at many times and every time in small quantity which according to this rule of these Casuists could not be matter sufficient for a mortal sin and so in the other vices and sins The same Escobar in the abridgement which he made of moral Divinity in one sole Book proposeth the same question but not any longer as a probleme but as a resolution and an opinion constantly assented to by the Society For he professes to relate no others and to advance nothing of himself no more then from strange Authors n Rogo auex numero venialium exurgat moâ—ta'e Unde v. g. per impossibile quie omnia peccata venialia committeret culpam levem non excederet Escobar tract 2. exam 1. c. 12. n. 57. p. 385. It is demanded saith he whether of many venial sins one mortal may be made and by consequent if one committed all venial sins which is impossible if the fault were more then a sleight one He confesses himself that this case is so extravagant that it is impossible Yet he forbears not to propose and resolve it in this sort o Negative respondeo cum Granado 1.2 cont 6. tract 2. d. 2. sect 7. docente volentem uno actu omnia peccata venialia perpetrare solum venialiter delinquere Then with Granades who holds that he who hath a will to commit all at once and by one sole act all venial sins sins onely venially There is some cause to doubt whether the question be more strange or the answer For if it be a thing altogether unsufferable and which would have been grievously punished in the Church heretofore to propose a case and an excesse so extraordinary which no man could not onely not commit but which even could not come possibly into the heart of the most forlorn in vice it is not less strange to endeavour to make it be believed that he who would commit this excesse which passeth the corruption of all men that is to say who would commit more wickedness then either he or any other could possibly act and would do this deliberately and out of more malice should commit onely a small sin Who can perswade himself that a person can be in favour with God who is resolved to offend him as much as he can so that he may not be damned and doing all the evil that he is able against him with resolution to do yet also more if he could do it without destroying himself If a child should deal thus with his Father or a friend with his friend or a servant with his Master he would make himself an object of publick hate and an abomination to the whole world and there would be no person who would not judge them entirely unworthy of the quality and name of a Son friend or servant And neverthelesse these Jesuits pretend that he who demeans himself thus towards God ceases not to be in truth his servant his friend and his son and that he doth nothing which deserves displeasure and that he may not be taxed of mortal sin Sanchez proposes a case which is not far from that of Escobar He speaks of a man who entring into a Religious Order had made a resolution not to observe any rule or constitution of that Order nor of all the counsels or commands of his Superiours but those things onely which he could not neglect without mortal sin and for all the rest whereto he thought not himself obliged under the pain of mortal sin as vigils silence abstinence Justes of the Order and other such like Religious observations and mortifications of the spirit of the body he would not trouble himself at all and would dispense with himself as much as he could He asks what judgement ought to be made of a Frier who should be in such an estate whether his resolution and will which he hath absolutely to violate all the points of his rule and all the duties of his profession wherein he believed he should not sin at all or but venially should be a mortal sin whether this would hinder him from being a good Monk and whether this would be a great fault against the obligation which he had to move towards perfection The answer of this Doctor is that such a man ceased not for all that to be in a good estate before God and that he should be a good Frier though not perfect and that he sinned not at least not mortally against the obligation he had in the quality of a Religious person to pursue after perfection One of his reasons is that because he sins but venially as he supposes in violating severally every one of the points of his rule and the regular observations which he is resolved not to observe the will which he hath to transgresse them all is but a will to sin venially and which hath for its object venial sins onely and which by consequence it self could be no other then a venial sin We shall consider more particularly this case of Sauchez and his answer in handling the duties of Friers and perhaps elsewhere speaking of mortal and venial sin I was willing onely to mark this here by the by as a dependence and conclusion of the principle which is the subject of this Chapter that the greatness of the sin ought to estimated from and according to
sapiant quia minores vocantur Lactant. lib. 2 divin instit c. 8. These deprive themselves of wisdom who suffer themselves to be led by others like Beasts receiving without discerning all that which the ancients have invented That Which deceives them is the name of Ancestors Imagining that they cannot be Wiser then they because they come after them and because these are called neoteriques And in the same place l Deus dedit omnibus pro virili portionem sapientiae nec quia nos illi temporibus sapientia quoque antecesserunt Quia si omnibus aequaliter datur occupari ab antecedentibus non potest Ibid. God hath given wisdom to every man according to his capacity and those who precede us in time do not therefore exceed us in wisdom For being it is given indifferently to all men they who came first cannot by their possession eject others from it He considered not when he alledged these passages that what these Authors say is for reproof of those who suffer themselves to be carried with humane customs and traditions to the prejudice of manifest truth or who are too credulous and timorous in the inquiry after natural things which depend on reason and that they speak not of matters of Faith and Religion such as those are which he handles in his Book But if he have perceived this truth he abuses the authority of these great personages applying it against their sence and using it without reason to justifie a thing quite remote from their thoughts and contrary to their judgements and from that of all antiquity which were easie to be made appear if it were not a thing too remote from my subject He alledges also these words which he attributes to the Council of Constantinople m Beatus qui prosert verbum inauditum id est novum Syn. Const art 1. Happy is that man who produces an unheard word that is a now one Finally he cites those words of the holy Scripture n Omnis scriba doctus similis est patrifamilias qui profert de thesauro suo nova vettra Matth. 13. ver 53. every learned Doctor is like unto a Father of a Family who brings out of his treasure things new and old I passe by this last passage of the Gospel of Saint Matthew which he abuseth manifestly against the sence of the Son of God and that of all interpreters But I cannot passe over the remarkable falsity and visible corruption of the pretended words of the Council of Constantinople For the true words of the Council are Beatus qui profert verbum in auditum obedientium Blessed is he who utters a word into obedient ears From which he first cuts off the word obedientium obedient Afterwards he joins two words into one and instead of in auditum in to the hearing which were the Councils words he makes it say inauditum unheard In the third place adding corruption of sence unto falsification of words he saith that this word inauditum signifies new But there is no cause to marvel that the desire of novelty leads to falsity and consequently to errours and heresies Azor and after him Filliutius who doth nothing in effect but follow him speak also very advantagiously for novelty saying generally that the Apostolical Traditions are of humane right and that by consequence they may be changed o Ex quo officitur ut traditiones divinae ad â—us divinum specteat ac proinde sunt immutabiles Apostolicae vero ad jus humanum propterea Ecclesiae authoritate mut abiles Azor Instit mor. l. 8. c. 4. q. 4. pag. 743. Filliutius tom 2. tr 22. c. 1. n. 11. p. 65. Divine Traditions saith Azor appertain to Divine right and by consequence they are immutable but the Traditions of the Apostles are humane Laws and for that cause the Churoh may change them He expounds a little above what he means by Divine and Apostolical Traditions in these terms p Divinae traditiones sunt quaâ— ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli acceperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante vel gubernante vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt Apostolicae sunt qu as ipsi Apostoli tanquam Ecclesiae Praelati Doctores magistri recto es instituerunt Azor. Ibid. Divine Traditions are those which the Apostles have learned from the mouth of Jesus Christ or which the Holy Ghost hath dictated and they have written by his Command or by that of Jesus Christ The Traditions of the Apostles are those which the Apostles have instituted in the quality of Prelats Doctors Tutors and Governours of the Church In such manner that according to them the Traditions of the Apostles are no other then the Inventions of the Apostles which they ordained of themselves and of their own proper motion without having learned them of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit This is no more then his words clearly signifie and the division he makes suffers not any other sence to be given them since he opposes those Traditions which the Apostles have instituted of themselves quas ipsi Apostoli instituerunt to those which they have received from the mouth of Jesus Christ and from those which the Holy Ghost taught them and which he established by their Ministry quas ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli receperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante jubente vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt He makes then of these two sorts of Traditions as it were two opposite members dividing Traditions into Divine and Humane or Apostolical He calls the first Divine because they draw their original from God and his Spirit who hath instituted them the Apostles having onely published them by his motion and order he affirms that the other are humane and of humane right ad jus humanum spectant because according to him they proceed from an humane spirit and not from Gods and that the Apostles who were men instituted them and are become their Fathers and Authors If it be true as he faith that the Apostles have made these rules in the Church whether concerning faith or manners and that they have not received them from Jesus Christ nor the Holy Ghost he hath reason to say that the constitutions and traditions which he terms Apostolical are onely of humane right because they take their original and their authority from the spirit of man and which by consequence may be changed by men and it may follow also from the same principle that they are subject unto errour the spirit of a man how holy soever it be may always deceive him when he is the Author and original of his thoughts and actions It will follow thence also that the Apostles have governed the Church as Princes and Politicians govern their estates and their common wealths by their wit and reason It would follow likewise that the Church is not governed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ being they who first governed it and
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AN ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the Publication of this Work THE Greatness of God hath never been more resplendent than in the particulars wherein the Benefit of his Church hath been concerned Herein he is so absolute that he alone disposeth of all Events which have any respect of tendence towards it and overturning all the measures which humane prudence hath made for it self he permits them not to appear in the eyes of men but cloathed with such circumstances as he judges most proper for his designs and wherein they are least expected Such is the conduct he pleased to observe about this Book which we have now published The Author took it in hand in a time which appeared of all that ever were the most favourable for it The Morality of the Jesuits then happening to be in the greatest aversation and horrour to all them who had any light or piety The ingenious Letters of Montalte to the Provincial and the learned Writings of the Parochial Rectors of Paris having discovered the corruption of the greater part of their Maxims and a great number of the Prelates celebrious for their ability and piety having already censured them So that it seemed that the Church had no farther need in that particular than of some prudent and clear-headed person who might collect together in one and the same Writing all the Principles of these corrupted Morals and who therein might represent their excesses to the end that thereby the rest of its Pastors might be animated fully to banish from its bosom all those pernicious Novelties which disfigure the purity of its manners This was the cause which moved the Author of these Books with an incredible care and labour to apply himself thereunto having extracted out of the Books of the Jesuits all the principal Errours which