possible to deny it There is no Heresie whereof they would not render us guilty They have said that with Arrius we deny the Eternity of the Son and his Deity that with Nestorius we establish two Persons in Jesus Christ that with Eutyches we confound his two Natures They are two opposite Heresies and which cannot subsist together It matters not all is well enough if we be but calumniated Hath not Bellarmine made a Preface to his Book de Christo expresly to prove that we are Nestorians Sabellians Arrians and Eutychians Hath not Gregory of Valencia made a thick Book de Unitate Trinitate against the Lutherans and the Calvinists asserting that the Lutherans are truly of the Opinion of Servetus and that the Calvinists deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ And doth not Father Cresset say but newly That we hate the Virgin because we hate her Son In regard of Free Will they would have Us to be in the Party of the Manichees who said That Men were by their Nature determined to good or to evil and that they are not carried thereto by Choice and by Will In regard of Good Works they attribute to Us the horrid Opinion of the Gnosticks that said That the Spirital man may plunge himself into the most abominable Crimes of the Flesh without fear of the least Pollution or any Condemnation They say That we deny the necessity of Good Works to Salvation that we make a vile Sinner after a small act of Faith and Repentance as just as the Holy Virgin that we make Men to be Just by the Righteousness of another as if we should make a black Stuff to be white with the whiteness of another Stuff that we do cloath our Just man with an imputed Justice under which are hid the most horrid moral Impurities that we lead men to Salvation by the way of Crimes Murthers and Adulteries that we render the effects of Predestination infallible like the Mahumetans so that a Man Predestinate living like a Devil cannot fail to become happy like an Angel That we would have an Adulterer a Fornicator yea a Man guilty of the Vilest disorders may be as assured of his Salvation as Jesus Christ that our Lord Jesus Christ despaired that he was damned that we are Enemies to the Saints In fine Who could number all the Calumnies wherewith they load us to render us odious That is but a small part thereof And the most terrible of all it 's that though we justifie our selves never so often and tell them we abhor all those Heresies that we detest them that we combat them though we explain our selves never so much and declare that the Words so abused are taken in a Counter-sense though we cry out against the Calumny protest our Innocency formally reject all the Consequences imputed to us that comes to nothing and they still return to the like again We must needs be Hereticks at any rate and they repeat against Us this day all those Calamities with the same air of Confidence as if we had nothing to answer thereto or had never answered the same We should more easily bear with those Excesses if that we had none to complain of but those small Declaimers who do harangue on Shop-boards and who preach in the Markets from the Steps of a Cross If those Outrages were done Us but by those little Scribes who are void of Science Name Spirit Honour and Conscience whereof the World is full But it 's impossible not to lose our Patience when we see Authors that are grave and able learn'd and famous compose great Volumes whereof all the Pages are soiled with those black Slanders whereto we have answered an hundred times When we cannot blame Ignorance and Insufficiency we cannot but complain of unsincere dealings and say that such a Course is not honest It 's an inseparable Character of the false Church Hereticks have always dealt thus with the Orthodox They have still calumniated them and have disfigured by their Imputations the purest and holiest Doctrines we need but to have read a few of the Holy Fathers to be assured thereof But the true Church was always most tender of Sincerity She would never slander her Adversaries and would never disjoyn Zeal from fair dealing Here is another kind of foul dealing that appears less Criminal it 's that which flatters Religion whereof she draws the Picture which dissembles her deformities and gives an air of Innocence and Purity to all This Artifice seems to be innocent every one should be permitted to make himself known by his best sorts and shew its fairest side And this is a Method that hath been extreamly used for some years of late for to defend the Roman Church There are two ways of defending her one is in rejecting the Manage of Policy in using the most ordinary and common Expressions In saying for Example That part of Religious Worship is due to Saints that they may be invok'd as Intercessours with God as they to whom God hath given under himself the Government of the World that Temples may be built Fasts appointed celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass to their Honour make Vows to them and yield to them part of all that which may be called Religion So speaks Vasquez that the Sense of the Catholick Church confirm'd by Tradition and perpetual Use is that there is due to Saints a Sacred Adoration In saying that one may ask of them whatever is ask'd of God Health Protection Remission of Sins Salvation Grace and Glory So that we pray not to them as to the first Authors of these Graces In saying that one must reverence adore and salute the Images of the most holy Virgin Mother of God of the glorious Angels and of all the Saints and that all those that are not of that mind ought to be Anathematized In saying That the Sacrifice of the Mass is a true Sacrifice and so called properly that it 's not a simple Commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross but a Propitiatory Sacrifice which is offered for the Pains for the Satisfactions and for other Necessities of the Faithful In thundering out which Anathema's against all that would not receive those Propositions and all others in the very Sense of the Church There is a second Manner of defending the Opinions and Practises of the Roman Church that is in sweetning them In saying for Example That the Worship of Saints is Nothing at the bottom that Invocations addressed to them are not of another Natnre but such as are made to living Saints when we recommend our selves to their Prayers That the Scandal taken from the Worship of Images is a Scandal ill taken that at the bottom they are set in the Church but for the use of Commemoration that human Satisfactions are no prejudice to those of Jesus Christ because they serve only to apply the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ The first Method was in this regard in the way of very
of your Doctors On the contrary They lay before him the Scripture on the Tribunal of the Church They tell him Obey your Leaders suffer not your selves to be conducted by the false Lights of your own Reason Submit to the Mysteries but let not your Submission be blind consult the Scripture read instruct your selves and believe nothing upon the Witness of Men Do not rest but upon the Testimony of God His Word is clear solid sufficient for your Instruction His Authority is Soveraign and Independent of any other He sees not in the Worship of that Religion any strange Language which diffuses Darkness through all which conceals Mysteries from the Eyes of Ignorant Ones all is naked all is open all is simple He sees he hears all that is done all that is said every one Prays in the Tongue he understands and which is understood in the Country where he is This Infidel sees Preachers which exhort him to Repentance to Mortification to renouncing the Vanities and the Idols of the World but they do not impose on him the Necessity of declaring all the Motions of his Soul to a Man they order him to confess primarily to God then they advise him to make choice of a wise Director to discover with Liberty to him the Wounds of his own Conscience and to ask his Advices They tell him That all Human Satisfactions are incapable of paying the Justice of God That our Lord Jesus Christ hath paid for us abundantly That his Merit is granted to us by a gratuitous Mercy and that the true Satisfaction which God requires is the Contrition of the Heart Faith Charity and Amendment of Life They do not charge him with the multitude of External Observations of Fasts of Macerations of Pilgrimages They say to the contrary That bodily Exercise is profitable to little but that solid Piety hath the Promises of this present life and of that which is to come They labour to draw him out of the Security that the Worldlings are plunged in but they seek not to retain him in perpetual Terrours They tell him There is no Salvation for the Sinner that perseveres in Impenitency but that the true Penitent may be assured that God will shew him Mercy They assure him That if his Sins be pardoned him in this life they shall also be pardoned him in the other too and that there is no Purgatory nor Torments through which Men are to pass to arrive to Paradise They confess to him That they have not the power to remit Sins They tell him that that appertains to God only but they tell him That God never refuses that Grace to those that ask it with the Spirit of Humility In fine He sees nothing Pompous in the Government or that may relish of the Spirit of the World No Monarchs no Spiritual Soveraigns He sees none but Conductors that are Men of an equal Authority or if he sees in some places within that Church some Bishops and some Archbishops He understands that those Persons make Profession to have no other Head for the Spirituals but Jesus Christ and no other for their Temporals than those which God hath established in the World by his Providence If this Infidel who hath thus cast his Sight upon these two Religions be wise he will ask time to think of his Choice and will pronounce nothing upon what he hath seen But in Conscience can any Man believe that this Man who hath no other light but that of good Sense can perswade himself that these two Parties make up but one Religion that it is the same thing that their Differences are not Essential In one He sees Altars and Sacrifices in the other he sees none In the one he hears them invoke Saints and Angels in the other he sees they content themselves to reverence their Name and to invoke God In the one he sees Images to be served in the other he sees a mortal aversion for that Worship In the one he understands Nothing in the other he understands all If this Man suffers himself to be conducted by his Natural Lights he will without doubt believe that these two Religions are absolutely different and I cannot imagine that he could believe what my Lord of Condom saith That the Disputes of these two Parties can be nullified by explaining some Terms and that what remains hath nothing Capital and that can hurt the foundations of the Faith ARTICLE III. That we agree not about Fundamental Points BUt happily may some say That this general Review of the two Religions is proper only to make an Illusion because that in this Method Men judge only by appearances Now its true that they are in an Appearance of great distance whereas in examining things in particulars and at the bottom it may be that they would go near to accord about those things and should only dispute about Terms That might happily be and therefore I will not forbear entring into a particular Examen of each Article First My Lord of Condom saith That we all agree about the Foundations of the Faith that the Doctrines which we esteem Fundamental are all believed and professed in the Roman Church He brings for Witness thereof Monsieur Daillé who saith in his Book entituled Faith founded upon the Scriptures That all Fundamental Articles are without Contest that the Roman Church professes to believe them That in Truth we do not hold all the Opinions of that Church but that we hold all their Beliefs or Creances My Lord of Condom lays another Maxim which he draws from our Principles It's That if one agrees with the Foundations and then lays down Opinions which does overthrow those Foundations by Consequences we must not impute those Consequences to him who disavows The Opinion of the Lutherans about the real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist destroys the Human Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ by a lawful Consequence but the Lutherans disavow that Consequence therefore we will not impute it to them He would have us to have the same Equity for his Church For Example She establishes the Sacrifices of the Mass She lays down the Intercession of Saints She ordains Penances and Satisfactions We say That the first of them destroys the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the second prejudices his Mediation that the others are injurious to the Super-abounding fulness of his Merits But they say they are only Consequences which the Roman Church disowns therefore we may not impute the same to them without Calumny I might have many things to say thereabout If I had designed to make a great Book but I will restrain my self within this That this Consideration cannot be a Means of Reunion nor a Reason of our Re-entrance into the Roman Church First Because it 's not true that both Parties agree about all the Protestants esteem to be Fundamental There are Three general Foundations in Religion First That there is a God who is to be adored The
Second That there is but one God and we ought to serve and adore none but him The Third That this God is to be served in Jesus Christ joyntly with him and according to the Religion which he hath taught The first is the foundation of all Religion in general The second the Foundation of the true Religion in that it embraces the Religion of Moses and that of Christ And the Third is the Foundation of the Christian Religion The Roman Church receives the first Foundation That God is to be served and adored She receives the Third but in Words for she makes indeed Profession to adore God according to the Religion which Jesus Christ hath taught but we pretend that her Worship is not suitable to her Profession They must not answer me that we are to blame to pretend that Happily may we be to blame but at present the Question is not to know whether we have reason but only to know if in our Principles the Roman Church destroys some Foundation of the Faith Now she destroys according to us this One therefore it s impossible that we can joyn with her But she destroys much more openly the Second of those Foundations in that she serves and adores that which is not God according to Protestants We must adore a God behold the first Foundation and the Roman Church receives it We must adore none but God behold the second Foundation which is no less important than the first and that is it which the Roman Church absolutely destroys She adores the Sacraments of the Eucharist Yea say they but it 's in the Supposition that the Eucharist becomes the Humanity of Jesus Christ that is to say the Humanity of God But that is nothing to the present Question It suffices me that it 's most evident that according to our Principles the Roman Church adores another besides God and by Consequence she also destroys according to us one of the principal Foundations of the Faith My Lord of Condom will then permit me to tell him That he hath not read in any of our Authors that our Church agrees with his in the Foundations of the Faith Monsieur Daillé hath not said so and if he had said it I would make no difficulty to say That he was deceived We only say That we believe nothing but what the Roman Church believes with us but that we believe not all that the Roman Church believes We distingnish Affirmative Articles from the Negative We agree with the Roman Church about Affirmative Articles viz. we all believe that there is a God that he is to be adored that there is a Jesus Christ that he is dead risen again ascended to Heaven God blessed for ever with the Father that he is the Redeemer of the World c. But we agree not about the Negative Articles and among them there are some that respect the Foundations such is that whereof we speak Thou shalt adore none but God We make no difficulty to say That the Worship of Images and Invocation of Saints do also destroy this Foundation because there is no act of Religion that is not an Adoration So Men cannot serve religiously any Creature without violating this Command Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve 2. I subjoyn That the Fundamental Verities wherein we agree with the Roman Church cannot be a Means of Reunion with her because of the multitude of Opinions which she hath added to those Foundations and that those Additions are absolutely opposed to the purity of the Faith I say that in retaining the Verities which the Roman Church retains and even some over and above one might make a monstrous Religion and Soveraignty Idolatrous for Example Suppose that some Men should believe that there is but One God that we must adore None but him that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the World that he is truly God and truly Man that there is a Paradise and a Hell c. But who should perswade himself that all Creatures are united to God in so particular a manner that they ought to be worshipp'd with God That the Sun for Example is the Eye of the Divinity that in that quality he ought to be worshipp'd that the Rivers are his Arms whereby he embraces the Earth and because of that one may Sacrifice to them Those People would say I worship but one God I believe in Jesus Christ but I believe that that God is every where and that God is All and because of that I adore that All wherein he is If the Ubiquitans in the Supposition they make That the Humanity of Christ is in all the Spaces and in all the Bodies should come to conclude That Men must worship all the Bodies of the World would they not be Idolaters Nevertheless they would retain all the Foundations of the Faith which the Roman Church retains As for what they say That one must not impute unto People the Consequences which they disavow I Answer That the question is not here about Consequences which arise from certain Errors which Men defend but whereof they disown the Results The question is or Consequences owned and that we may impute to them that avow them Jesus Christ est reellement dans l'Eucharistic Behold the Principle or Errour Then must we adore the Sacrament behold the Consequence and a Consequence avowed We must do all that the Church commands Behold the Principle Therefore we must serve Images and invoke Saints behold the Consequences which are owned I might produce an hundred more but these suffice me I add thereto That there are Consequences which though they be disowned they cease not to subsist Those are they that arise from the very Actions and Practises If a Man should give a Box on the Ear to another and say that no wrong is done to another but when one hath no right to strike and therefore denies to have done him wrong because it was not his Intention to wrong him or because he had right to strike him because he denies the Consequence shall it be less true The Roman Church invokes Saints serves Images adores the Sacrament of the Eucharist We tell her She offers injury to God in imparting to Others a Worship which is due to him alone Thereupon she Answers It 's a Consequence you draw but what we deny In Consciente is such a Justification to be received We must distinguish well between Speculative Consequences which arise from a Doctrine and those that are Practical and which arise from Worship It 's of the former that we must understand this Rule of Equity That we must not impute Consequences to those that disavow them But that cannot be applied to the Consequences of Practice In fine When we accuse the Roman Church to do wrong to God in imparting Adoration to others to the Sacrifice of the Cross in adding another Sacrifice to the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ in establishing Human Satisfactions It 's not
shew me that Church to whom I must submit I see in the Orient a Greek Church which they call Schismatick in the Occident I see there Societies of Men whom they call Eutychians Jacobites Nestorians Melchites and many others Each one of these Societies tells me that she is the true Church whom I must hear Which shall I believe Believe her say they that hath the Marks of Antiquity of Succession of Chairs and particularly of the Apostolick Chair But every one of those Societies doth boast to have all those Advantages to be the most Ancient to be Apostolical to have had the Apostles for Founders The Church of Alexandria saith that she was founded by St. Mark her first Bishop that of Jerusalem by St. James These are Matters of Fact and to clear my self thereof I must read whole Libraries I that neither have Latin nor Greek which have neither time enough nor piercing Wits to follow hard Studies Either I must remain uncertain or else I shall be reduced to believe that the Roman Church is the true Church upon her own simple Word and upon the Witness that she gives her self which is of all things in the World the most unjust for no Man ought to be believed in his own Cause Yea though I should believe that the Roman Church is the true Church and Infallible If I ask where that Infallible doth rest they cannot teach it me The one will say that it is in the Pope others will say that it is false and I must beware of that thought Some Doctours will tell me that the Infallible Oracle is not found but in Councils but others will call that Opinion Heresie and will Threaten the Tribunal of the Inquisition if I yield unto those Thoughts I know not then what side to turn to to find a solid Prop to my Faith for on all hands I see nothing but Doubts in that which they call the Church uncertainty and dividing of Opinions If I pierce into the bottom of that Church and that I examine the Sense thereof I see People that say with one Voice We must follow the Church One cannot go off from her without wandring But under that appearance of Uniformity I see a prodigious diversity of Opinions Some are Semi-Pelagians and teach That Grace is not efficacious but by the Will of Man others defend Efficacious Grace by it self and accuse the former of recalling Pelagianism Some say That the Command of Loving God obliges at all times and the others say that it never obliges I see some that accuse others to be the Corrupters of Morality and which indeed make the Truth of their Accusation palpable by ones Finger but they who are accused do by turns accuse their Adversaries to be Calvinists Hereticks to ruine the Virtues of Sacraments to estrange the Faithful from the Communion of the Body of Christ and to bind Conscience by unjust Chains All those People are in the Church they follow all the Sentiments of the Church as they say yet are they in Paths so opposite that Hell and Heaven are not more See the Uniformity of that Church whereto they would have me to give up my self It must be a concluded Affair We shall never resolve to leave the Foundation of the Word of God who always abides the same to engage our Selves in a Sea of Doubts and Uncertainties where we cannot set our Foot nor find a fixed Bottom That the important Controversie of Authority Infallible of the Church be not an Obstacle to our Re-union Monsieur de Condom would perswade us by all means that we are in that regard in the same Practise and in the same Opinion with his Church In that we make our Church Judge Soveraign and Infallible of the Controversies which arise among us He proves it by two things First Because we condemn the Doctrine of the Independants which say That every Faithful Man is to follow the Motions of his own Conscience and that each Flock is to be governed by their proper Laws without dependance of any other in Matters Ecclesiastical Whereto we oppose That if that Doctrine had place there might be formed as many Religions as Parishes and we conclude That the Faithful ought to be Dependants in regard of their Faith that is they must depend upon a Superiour Authority which is that of the Church I conceive not what difficulty Monsieur de Condom finds therein Have we ever said That the Faithful ought to be absolutely Independant of the Church Do we deny the Authority of the Church to be great holy venerable Do we consider the Decisions of holy Councils Assembled in God's Name and who have decreed according to his Word as Nothing There is much difference between a Great Authority and an Infallible Authority between a blind and absolute Dependance and a Dependance conditional The Authority of the Church is great but it is not Infallible Councils ought not to be despised but their Decisions are not to be received blindfold The Faithful are to live in Dependance but they must examine by the Word of God those Decisions whereon they are to depend Not to make a New Religion if they think good but to submit to Decisions by a Principle of Reason lightned with Divine Faith and grounded on the Word of God But they will say If those Private Men in their Examen Judge that the Decision of the Church be not true what must they do Ought they to submit or no If they submit against the Judgment of their Reason that is it we ask If they submit not and that they follow their Thoughts there is a new Religion I Answer If those Private Men Judge that the Decision of a Council be false they cannot but follow the Judgmenr of their Heart although all the Popes and Bishops should oppose it but if they be wise they will not stick to their first Examination they will labour to have their Doubts clear'd If they cannot they will keep silence in case the Errour in hand be not Capital If they believe that their Salvation is concerned then their Consciences obliges them not to make a New Religion but to chuse that which they believe most conformed to the Truth of the Gospel I will not engage further into a Question which hath a long Train One may read thereon those who have Written to justifie our Separation and among others the excellent Answer of Monsieur Claude in his Book of Prejudices there may all see what are the Rights of Private Men and of Flocks when the Church begins to wander The other Proof which Monsieur de Condom brings to prove That we give â—â— our Synods an Infallible Authority is drawn from our Discipline That Discipline would have that when a Point of Doctrine is in Controversie after that the business hath passed the Judgment of the Consistory of the Colloques and of Synods Provincial In fine They should acquiesce in the Judgment of the Synod National The same Discipline Ordains
fair dealing but at this day things are very much altered the first Method hath not been found significant therefore the second is now taken up yet have they not universally renounced the former Italy Spain and most part of Germany and even of France either know not or relish not these Sweetnings Those that are grown old in the old Opinions do also respect the ancient Expressions as Consecrated and find it not difficult to use the Politicians as Prevaricators I wish they would observe these considerable Words of Father Mainbourg in his History of Lutheranism These pretended Expositions of the Faith which suppress or dissemble or express in ambiguous Terms only or too much sweetned a part of the Doctrine of the Church do satisfie neither the one nor the other which do equally complain that Men do mince it in an affair so delicate as Faith is where Men cannot fail in one point but that they must fail in all We understand well what he would say and whom he aims at it 's neither at Cardinal Contaren nor at the Authors of ancient Enoticks it 's to those that do Byass it at this day in their Expositions of the Catholick Faith Father Mainbourg writes like an honest Man he is most able and hath the right Sense of things There are then able and honest Men in the Roman Church who disapprove these ways of Sweetning and dare to say and to print it But there are others that think to prosper better in the Conversion of those whom they call Hereticks in stripping the Roman Church of all those terrible Images wherewith others have cloathed it Happily they may be of the same Apprehension with the others but they judge it good to express themselves otherwise to bring nearer again those Spirits which they had scared by their hard Manners Yet would I believe that among those moderate Persons there are many that do deal fairly that would willingly have things as they express them who if they were believed would reduce the Worship of Images to a little matter and would accommodate themselves in divers respects to the Weakness of those whom they consider as separate from the Church I believe the Author of the Saving Advises of the Virgin Mary to her indiscreet Devotes is of this Order and I doubt not but he hath many Approbators But though he had infinitely more that alters nothing at the bottom The Roman Church remains still the same in her Worship in her Canons and in her Dogma's Among all those Works which have for their aim the Sweetning of things and to lead Christians into a Spirit of Reconciliation there 's none more famous than the little Book of my Lord of Condom that hath for Title Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine about Matters of Controversie There was never any Work whereof the Author and his Party have made more boast especially since it 's fortified with the Approbations of Rome They look thereon as on the triumph of the Roman Church and they pretend that those changes of Religion that are at this day sufficiently ordinary and which they call Numerous Conversions are the effects of my Lord of Condom's Method I grant that I am not able enough to enter into the Merit of that piece I see nothing therein but what was written long ago My Lord of Condom hath not been the first who hath essay'd to disguise the Doctrine of the Roman Church It 's more than fity years since that this Method of Sweetning hath been used to draw Men and though it had not been printed it 's certain that it hath been used an hundred times by word of Mouth and face to face Except the delicate Dress the sweet and insinuating Manners of my Lord of Condom and some bold Propositions in the Subject of Images I see nothing there of his own nor that should have gained him so many Approbations Notwithstanding mens Spirits are so affected till labour be taken to recover them from it The Roman Catholick considers this Book as the Buckler of his Faith and the mighty Instrument of Conversions and the Protestant looks thereon as on a Ghost whereof he dreads the Illusions I am deceived if it be so dreadful as men imagine All its St eagth consists in disguising things from us and making us to behold them in another face Therefore there is need only to make that appear in its Natural state which he doth represent through a Veil to us That Work hath been Answer'd most learnedly and solidly and if I had no other design but that of Answering it I believe I should not trouble my Pen about it but here I much less purpose to Answer my Lord of Condom than to make a Book opposite to his All that Art and dexterity can imagine to engage those of our Religion to embrace his own is sprinkl'd through his Book and I will put into mine what I believe most capable to preserve them from the peril whereinto he would cast them My Lord of Condom presents his Religion to us under a Veil which he hath composed by an extraordinary effort of Spirit He would have Us to behold her only through that Veil But he may take it well though we have not that complaisance for him because it might be fatal to our Salvation I will therefore draw this Veil paint out the Roman Religion according to Truth whereto nothing can be reproached and shew it in its Natural complexion This is in my mind the best Preservative that we can give our People and particularly it 's of absolute necessity to ruinate the Design of my Lord of Condom Without having precisely a design to combat him yet will I fight him every where because I shall meet him every where and will be obliged to take off the Veil which he hath spread upon the Worship and the Dogma's of his Church I will bind my self also to follow his Order because he hath nothing but what is natural enough One may easily judge that the Affairs whereinto I chuse to enter is a question of Fact purely I will not engage my self to the discussion of the Right I do not enquire here which hath best Reason whether the Roman Church or the Protestant it 's enough to know what is taught both in the one and in the other Religion and not at all whether it be ill for either of them to teach so Therefore will I forbear proving and will not so much as touch those Proofs that my Lord of Condom brings in for his own Party But before we enter into the particulars I believe it fit we should make some general Reflexions ARTICLE I. General Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book FIrst To know a Book well we must enter if possible into the Spirit of it and see within what prospect it hath been composed The Work now in hand is one of those that hath been produc'd by the design of reuniting the two Religions in France a design which some
great Ones had busied their Head about All the World knows the several Advances that have been made thereto by some particular Persons They of the Protestant Party which have entred into this Proposition had concluded that it might be done either by way of Accommodation in obliging each of the Parties to yield some things or by way of mutual Toleration that is to say That without leaving their places they might consider one another with Charity and should not damn one another with full authority as is done These two Methods did not at all please the Roman Church that is not it which She demanded She could not take the first way which is that of Accommodation and of mutual Relaxation for according to her Principles being Infallible she could not relax any thing but she must relax some Truths which thing Honour and Religion permitted not The second Party did please her much less by that Way all things had remained in the state wherein they are both the Religions would haye joyned hands but would not have been confounded nor reunited The Protestant would have considered the Roman Catholick as his Brother serving one God in a manner somewhat different but yet would have continued Protestant I cannot blame those Gentlemen for despising that Proposition that cannot accord with Piety But I find it a surprizing thing that rejecting these two Ways of Reunion they have proposed us another which is much more strange For to reunite say they we must necessarily return to make up One and the same Body to have the same Assemblies participate of the same Sacraments and live under the same Pastours But towards that it 's not necessary to change any thing in the Religion and Worship of the Catholicks We must only make the Protestants comprehend that they were to blame to regard the Dogma 's and the Worship of the Church in that sort wherewith they have regarded it hitherto We must perswade them that those great Spaces that divide the Catholick from the Protestant are the only effects of mistaken Imagination that at the Bottom we are all near one another that there are only some Mistakes that we teach not what they believe us to teach that our Worship which seems so opposite in the Service of one only God is nothing of what it appears to be that those Appearances though they seem to be so cross one to another are nevertheless at the bottom the most innocent in the World And that being done those Gentlemen must reunite in returning to the Church there is nothing more facile This is a strange manner of Reuniting When two opposite Parties are reunited Composition is made each one yields of its Rights Here they would have Us to give all and they would grant us nothing Not that We had been capable of suffering our selves to be tempted by Propositions of Accommodation and of mutual Relaxation The Roman Church on her Principles will never make such Propositions with sincere purpose And though she should make them in earnest she would find them impossible in their Execution The Gallican Church hath no right to treat for the Roman Church nor to relax for her while she remains tied to the Chief of that Roman Church That which We would ask in that Treaty is that which will never be granted Us for we must not dissemble we would not have a Demy-Reformation we would have them renounce that which they consider as Essential and Capital It 's true that the manner of Reunion which those Gentlemen have imagined is of all the most commodious thing for their Church but we look on it as the worst of all Evil for Ours After all the Advertisements of my Lord of Condom I would fain know what is more safe now for Us in the Roman Church than what was when we first did come away from her Do not all things persevere therein in the same State Do we see there the Temples filled with Images and Men prostrating themselves before them their Vaults resounding with the Invocation of Creatures Adorations rendred to that which we know not to be God Is it then enough to say to us That we did not understand our selves You have thought we should say that and we would say quite another thing Understand us well and come in again and you shall see that at the Bottom we are not far distanc'd one from the other Surely we must be very weak and very base to fall into that Snare to renounce that Grace which hath cost us so much Blood to forsake the Faith of our Ancestors which they have established with so much labour so much sweat and watching and whereto we have hitherto sacrificed our Repose our Fortune and all our Worldly Interests Either we had no reason to come out forth from the Roman Church or there is no reason to invite us to return thither without having brought in any change into the same To change Expressions and the manner of speaking of Things is to change nothing at the Bottom Let them call the Service of Images Invocation of Saints the Worship of Reliques with what Name they will it s still the same thing Let them put new Colours to the Adoration of the Eucharist it will still be the Adoration of that which we do call a Simple Creature So that we must needs come to the Bottom thereof to know whether we have reason I cannot forbear to add another Reflexion to that former The Sweetnings of these Gentlemen do tend to make us see that we deceive our selves when we were perswaded that we were far distanc'd one from another and that our Debates are grounded upon our misunderstanding that we agree in the Foundations and that the rest are but few small things It 's upon this Supposition that they exhort us to leave our Party to return to Theirs But upon what Right do they make this Proposition to us I will suppose that what they insinuate be true that there be but a little Space between them and us Might we not then say to them Well Sirs Come to us traverse those little Spaces there is no further distance from You to Us than from Us to You. It cannot be more difficult for you to pass this Way than for us Why must we our selves pass all the Advances Methinks I hear them cry out thereupon and say What Insolence Have we not the Possession We are the Church You are gone out from the midst of us It 's your part to return You are the Innovators You are but a handful of People who have the boldness to oppose your selves to Millions of Men and you would have those Millions of Men to come to you Is it not more just you should go to them There was no farther distance from the Donatists to the Catholicks than from the Catholicks to the Donatists But suppose that the Heat which animated both Parties had been quenched that they cleared themselves that they had acknowledged that the
Whilst they fell under cover the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti and the Works done for the maintaining thereof Add thereto that they send Post through all Europe under the name of the fournal of the Learned the Praise of those Books which are transported with so much Violence against Moderate Persons It 's true that the Book of my Lord of Condom and the Advertisement which serves for a Preface are also upheld by splendid Approbations But to what purpose That Book enters not into the Particulars it Condemns nothing it Justifies all it Explains It 's true that he grants that there are Practices of Devotion which he doth not approve too much It 's that which is signified by these Words It nothing avails to object against us neither those Practises which they pretend to be general nor the Sense of particular Doctors for without examining those useless Facts it suffices to say in one word that those Practises and Opinions such as they be which will not be conform'd to the Spirit and Decrees of the Council are nothing to the Religion nor to the Body of the Catholick Church They are lost blows which touch nothing because they aim at too many things Those Gentlemen who disapprove in general the Practises which are not conform to the Spirit of the Council of Trent would find work enough if they were obliged to open their mind and to speak clearly They would fear the same Lot with the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti viz. That Rome which hath given its Approbation to that disavowing of some indiscreet Devotions conceived in general terms might nevertheless censure those Censors if they would enter into Particulars and openly condemn what they approve not It 's known in some measure how Jealous the Roman Church is of those Practises which are condemned by honest Men and by moderate Spirits One may judge thereof by the Welcom given to the Bull which the Pope hath published to suppress an Office of the immaculate Conception of the Conception of the Virgin and of many Indulgences That is too publick not to have come to our knowledge It 's certain that if there were a Tribunal Superiour to that of Rome this Tentative had been there vigorously repulsed The Roman Church that could not censure it hath at least despised it This Example may let us see that it 's not sufficient that the Pope should approve or disapprove any thing to make it to be or not to be Though Innocent the Eleventh had approved the Explications of my Lord of Condom it will not be necessarily true that they should be conform'd to the Sense of the Roman Church Those Gentlemen grant that Popes are often but particular Persons and that do not always act under the Character of publick Persons And we may say with some kind of assurance that what was approved by the Pope of this day if Times change but a little might come to be condemned by one of his Successors There want no Examples of the like Contrarieties in the Pieces that flow from this See ARTICLE II. A General Idea of both Religions IT 's time to enter into the Book of my Lord of Condom At his entrance he doth discover his Intention He hopes saith he that his Exposition shall produce two good effects First That many Disputes shall vanish altogether because they are founded upon false Explications of our Creed The Second That the Disputes which shall remain shall not appear like the Principles of the pretended Reform'd so Capital as they at first would make them to be believed and that according to those very Principles they have nothing that hurts the foundations of the Faith That is to say To express the things by other Words that my Lord of Condom will cause both Religions so to reapproach to that Point that one may pass from the Protestant Religion to the Roman without endangering his Salvation in any way although the Protestants do teach nothing but Verities Because that the Controversies that separate the Protestant from the Catholick Roman either are not real or else regard not the foundations of the Faith If that be not the sense of his Words I grant that I see none therein I must ask my Lord of Condom pardon but I cannot forbear to tell him that I find not this design to be honest it is to lead Men to betray Truth and their Consciences The Principle which he lays is of good use for his Church in France where Roman Religion is predominant which hath on her side all Worldly advantages But it 's to be feared that he will carry on his Catholick to renounce easily their Religion in England Holland Denmark Swedland and in other places where Charges and Advantages are distributed by the Protestants For one needs not be extreamly turn'd to the side of Libertinism for to say If Men can pass without Risk from the Protestant Religion though they believe it to be true to the Catholick Religion acknowledging therein some defects one may also without danger pass from the Catholick Religion to the Protestant Religion in believing this moderately bad We must tell the Truth it 's a dangerous Snare that is laid for Us. The Author of the Advertisement doth conjure Protestants by Charity which is God himself and by the Name of Christians which is common to us to judge no more of the Catholick Doctrine by what is told them in their Sermons but by this Exposition But I conjure them by the Care they ought to have of their Salvation to beware of the Illusions that are prepared for them and not to feek here for Pretences when they shall be tempted to quit a Religion hated and disfavoured to follow that which opens the Way to all Preferments There is no less Concerns in this affair than Eternal damnation God who will prove all false Doctrines by the Fire of his Word and those that shall have followed them by that of his terrible Judgment cannot be deceived by Equivocations nor by imperfect Expositions I demand of them a little Sincerity a little Love for their Salvation and a moderate good Sense with those one may easily judge whether both Religions be so near to each other that they differ not but by Disputes which may be caused to vanish in explaining some Terms or by Opinions that hurt not the foundations of Faith I will first give a general Idea both of the One and of the other I 'le suppose an Infidel who seeks for Religion in the several Sects which are among the Christians He enters into the Churches of the Roman Catholicks he sees them filled with Pictures and those Images themselves magnificently adorn'd put into the most Sacred places having at their feet many Suppliants Persons prostrate before them kissing them embracing their knees burning Torches before them or Wax Candles incensing them and carrying them about in pompous Processions In those Churches also doth
true that these things may be called Consquences and that we may be justified of that Accusation by denying them That is clear by this Example If one divide the Authority of the Prince Soveraign among his Subjects without his Permission I maintain That injury is done to him by that very thing and that one should not be received to say I deny I do injury to my Soveraign in giving one part of his Soveraign Authority to Others That 's a Consequence which I disown The Injury consists in the Act it self that is done and not in a Consequence which arises from the Action So to give a new Sacrifice new Intercessours and new Objects of a Religious Worship it 's directly to offend God the only Object of Religion It 's to oppose the Unity and Perfection of the Christian Sacrifice It 's to do injury to the only Intercessour and that by the very Actions which are done and not by Consequences which arise from those Actions But at least will they say You are obliged to grant that the most part of the Errours of the Roman Church are not Capital Thereupon I say Three things First That it 's enough if there be two or three Capital Errours and even One alone in a Religion to render intolerable that whith otherwise might have been tolerable The Second thing that I say is that the Errours which every one being apart might have been tolerated if they were alone cannot be born with when they are in a great Number A Life that should be wholly charged with those Sins which the Roman Church calls Venial and that should have no good Work at all would undoubtedly lead to Eternal death although every one of those Sins taken apart would not destroy Grace A Religion that should gather an infinite number of Practises of Superstitions and Errours whereof none were Capital could not be suffered nevertheless for it is a Capital Affair to bury the Truth in so great a number of Errours In fine I say that the Roman Church hath rendred Capital those of her Errours that would not otherwise be such since she hath made Articles of Faith of them She obliges under pain of Anathema that is to say Pain of Eternal damnation to believe that the Books of Maccabees are Canonical that Concupiscence after Baptism is no more Sin that the involuntary Motions of that Concupiscence are not Sins that Baptism is of an absolute necessity that Order is a true Sacrament that Marriage is not dissolved by Adultery and an hundred things of this Nature If she had received those Opinions without obliging others to receive them they might have been tolerated but as soon as she hath made them Articles of Faith they become intolerable For it 's a mortal Sin to receive Errours as Verities Fundamental It 's a horrid Crime to condemn to Hell Men that have but light Errours Now the Roman Church by her Anathema's obliges me to damn those who have but light Errours In fine It 's a black baseness to make Profession by Oath to believe as Capital Verities and necessary Ones such Opinions as we know to be Errours And that is it the Roman Church would oblige us to In a word I think to Reason justly in Reasoning thus All the Articles of Faith are Fundamental Points because they cannot be rejected without being Anathema's The Roman Church of those things which we might have considered as light Errours hath made Articles of Faith which may not be rejected without a direful Anathema Then hath the Roman Church in that regard those Opinions that could have pass'd for being of little importance Fundamental Points and in our regard Capital Errours And from thence it seems to me to be clear that after the decisions of the Council of Trent all Reconciliation is impossible with the Roman Church Because the Question is no more of tolerating light Errours but to believe them and make profession thereof and of damning all those that believe them not and that is it which an honest Man and a Christian cannot do ARTICLE IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him BEhold the Second Principle of that Union which my Lord of Condom propounds it 's That the Religious Worship in the Pag. 17. Church of Rome terminates in God If the Honour she gives to the Holy Virgin and the Saints may be called Religious it 's because it relates necessarily to God He would conclude thence That in retaining our Principle that every Religious Honour is to be related to God we can without hurt to our Conscience partake of the Worship of the Roman Church seeing that she teaches That every Religionâ— Worship is to be referr'd to God as to its necessary End 1. I wish that my Lord of Condom had cited to us some Text of the Council of Trent which might assure us That all Religious Worship is terminated in God I see there that we must invoke Saints because they reign with Jesus Christ and because they intercede for us c. I read there no more I conceive there is a little difference between invoking a Saint for reference to God and terminate a Religious Worship to God It 's true that the Roman Chuch invokes Saints by respect to God that is to say because they are the Saints of God because they govern under God because they have merited with God because they intercede before God for Men. If those Saints should have no relation to God no doubt Men would not serve them But is not this to impose visibly upon the World to say That because of that all Religious Worship is terminated in God Because that a Favourite hath the Princes Ear that he disposes of the places of the State under his Authority that he obtains of him what he will he is courted a thousand Homages are done to him do those Honours terminate in the Prince because of that Is he bound to own them and regard them as if done to himself A Man that would say such a thing would not he render himself ridiculous Who ever heard that Worship doth not terminate in that Person which is the immediate Object thereof Those Gentlemen conceive that they have right to say what they please and that we are bound to believe them on their Word 2. But though it should be the Intention of those that invoke Saints to terminate all their Worship in God would that Intention suffice to effect the thing If it were so there would never have been any Idolaters that is to say Persons that had adored Images or Idols For there was never any Religion so brutish as to terminate their Worship upon Brass or Wood Silver or Gold whereof the Image is compounded If any Person have done it it must not be imputed to the Religion Those Idolaters referr'd their Worship to the Deity which was represented by the Idol The Israelites had not offended God in the Worship of the Golden Calf for it 's as certain
Saints they are called St. Bonaventure St. Antonine St. Bernardine They dare not publickly condemn what they privately censure So all things do still remain and if any venture to publish any Writing against these Devouts it 's presently censur'd and suppress'd After that they would have us on the credit of four Words drawn out of a Catechism which the Council of Trent never saw nor approved we should belie our Eyes against what we read and what 's daily done before us We ask pardon of my Lord of Condom and of the Author of the Advertisement but we are bound to believe that their Church doth not simply invocate Saints as Intercessours but as Governours and Directors who distribute according to Gods Orders all the Good and Evil that befall the World We will believe that he and many others would fain have things to go otherwise But in fine they go so and apparently they will go so still yet for a long time The Archbishop and the Bishop of such and such a place suffer not that to be done in their Diocess say they to us That may be but an Archbishop and some Bishops are not all the Roman Church and maugre the Care of some Prelates of France the Devotion of Convents and Monks fails not to carry it on upon their Instructors And freely what may be said of Father Cresset's Devoti it 's that they follow the Principles of their Religion they shew it as clear as the day and the others forsake them Behold the second Excuse of my Lord of Condom We pray to the Saints glorified in the same Spirit wherein we pray the faithful which are on the Earth to pray for us This is a thing that I admire I had believed hitherto that a Cause remaining the same should produce the same effects If Men invoke the Saints which are in Heaven in the same Spirit wherein they pray the Saints that are on Earth why should not the same Spirit produce the same Effects In Conscience what would these Gentlemen say should they see a Man invoke one of his Friends or of his Neighbours of whose Sanctity he should have a good Opinion build Temples or Chappels to him name them with his Name erect Altars to him place him or his Images on those Altars prostrate himself at his feet kiss them and make devout Prayers to him consecrate Holy Days to him place him in his Oratories make long Pilgrimages to prostrate himself before him celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass in his honour and request his Merits and his Mediation before God it 's not enough to say That such a Man would pass for a Mad man I am assured he would pass for an Idolater Yet would he say I invoke and I serve this living Saint with the same Spirit wherewith you serve the glorious Saints I have no other End but to oblige him to have care of me in his Prayers Must there be so many Mysteries to sollicite the Charity of Saints who burn with Zeal for the Salvation of the whole Church How can Men say that Conducts more different than day and night should proceed from one and the same Spirit The Illusion which these Gentlemen would put upon us consists then in that they represent this Service which they render to Saints not so much as an Invocation but simply as a Prayer that we would present to a Friend to pray for us And they do not advertize us That the Service which is rendred to Saints is a Religious Service which embraces all the species of Services which are rendred to God Prayer Confidence Love Praises and Kneelings We cannot but complain there is no fair dealing in comparing things that are so different Was there ever any Man which hath called the Prayer presented to a Saint upon Earth for to pray for us a Service how much less a Religious Service My Lord of Condom grants That the Honour rendred to the Holy Virgin and to the Saints may be called Religious Would he also grant the same thing of the honour that is done to a Saint on Earth when he is pray'd to pray God for us If those Gentlemen would but say things as they know them would they not grant that the Worship that Men render to Saints is a kind of Religious Adoration and doth not my Lord of Condom grant it when he saith That in a sense Adoration belongs only to God and to Jesus Christ and that one may in regard of that sense abuse those terms to render their Doctrine odious but if we reduce sincerely those terms to the sense they give to them Objections then lose all their force Do they not distinguish Adoration and Worship in that of Latria Hyperdulia and Dulia The first is for God the second for the Virgin Mary the third for other Saints When a Gender is divided into its Species each of the Species may have the Name of the Genus If Religious Adoration be divided into Latria and Dulia then may Dulia retain the Name of Adoration It 's infinitely distant say they from the Adoration of Latria which is given only to God We are not agreed about that infinite distance but though there were the greatest difference of the one to the other that would not hinder but both the one and the other might bear the Name of Adoration There is a great distance between Man and Beast nevertheless doth this merit to bear the Name of Animal as well as that Father Cresset hath not scrupled that for he saith freely that there are three sorts of Religious Adoration and that one must not only honour the Saints but that he must adore them Finally To convince those Gentlemen the little Equity they shew in comparing the honour which we give to the Faithful when we recommend our selves to their Prayers to that which is rendred to the Saints I would pray them to consider what would be said of a Man that of his own Authority should Canonize a Dead man should build Temples and Altars to him and cause him to be publickly serv'd I am assured that there would not be Thunders enough in the Vatican to strike him down although he were well assured of the beatitude of his Saint by a Revelation For it 's not permitted to set any Person in the Kalendar nor make him to be served and invoked publickly before a solemn Canonization issuing from the Holy Seat But I would also willingly know if Men have need of Patents from Rome for permission to say in all occasions publick or private to a Faithful alive Pray for me There must be many Mysteries towards the one and none to the other Who sees not then that they put a prodigious difference between Serving or Invoking a glorified Saint and recommending One self to the Prayers of a living Saint And that things so different cannot be done in the same Spirit In fine Either let them tell us no more of the Service of the Saints as of a
are things that will surprize and which would never have been expected It 's good to observe that the Advertisement was made after the Approbations One may say with some assurance that Italy would not have suffered this Word to pass However it be my Lord of Condom may bless himself here that he hath made an Example He is the first that hath dared to write that and happily that hath dared to say it At least I may assure never to have read it in any nor to have heard it from any person though we see daily some of the most moderate Doctors of the Roman Church It 's true that most of these Gentlemen cannot endure to be accused of Adoring Images Thereupon we tell them You are then more scrupulous than the most Catholick Doctors who say That all Catholicks are agreed against Iconomacks That some Worship and Adoration is to be rendred to Images but that there are diversities of Opinions among them about the manner and nature of that Adoration That though it be true That the Image is not to be ador'd but because of the Original yet must it be adored in it self and properly without adoring the Original That the Images of the Cross are to be adored with Adoration of relative Latria That the Image may be ador'd with that Adoration wherewith its Original is ador'd properly in truth but by accicident that we regard the Image as conjoyned to the Original which is ador'd and that because of that one may adore it by Accident Behold already great Names in the Margin and one might without hyperbole add an hundred thereto But we will go on and say You are more scrupulous than the Writers of Port-Royal who are not accused to be Superstitious nor excessively Catholick They make one of their Devouts speak thus I kept my Bed for seven days since that time except that I rose thrice a day to go and adore the Crucifix You are more Catholick than the Popes themselves and than the Books whereof they are the Authors More than the Roman Pontifical which in the Chapter of the Benediction of a new Cross since that the Bishop bending his knees before that Cross adores it devoutly and kisses it More than the Missal which on Holy Friday saith of the Cross Come and let 's worship it In fine we add that this Scruple of not being willing to use this Word of Adoring in speaking of the Service of Images is a refined way unknown to the Councils which have establish'd this Service for the Second of Nice saith clearly by the Mouth of Tarasius That all those that will reverence Images and yet refuse Adoration to them are accused of Hypocrisie by the Holy Father viz. by Anastasius whose Testimony he was just then relating This Council in gross writing to the Emperours Constantine and Irene speaks thus to them We believe c. that Men must adore and salute the venerable Images of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Virgin pure Mother of God and also of the glorious Angels and of all the Saints And if any one be of another Spirit and questions whether Men must adore the holy Images this holy and venerable Coucil doth Anathematize him We see some Authors who being convinced sufficiently that since 800 or 900 years no question hath been made of using this term of Adoring to express the Worship given to Images are willing yet to use it but they distinguish and assure us That they do not worship Images as gods It 's that we willingly believe Happily among the Vulgar are found some stupid and simple Souls that do not well distinguish the Worship given to the Image from that which is to be rendred to God We cannot forbear saying That they who have established this Service of Images shall answer it to God for these Mistakes of the Vulgar But however we impute it not to the Roman Church that they worship Images as gods And I know not whether there ever were any People in the World to whom it may be attributed for I can hardly believe that there hath been any Religion brutish enough to give Divinity to Images of Wood Stone or Mettal These are the Colours that Men have hitherto diffused upon this Worship to render it tolerable to us We serve Images by relation to Originals said they We well know that Figures of Wood Stone and Mettal have no Divinity at all and are in no way worthy to be served What Service we give them is because of Jesus Christ the Holy Virgin and other Saints which they represent My Lord of Condom speaks not thus We serve not Images saith he God forbid You are not then of the Religion of the Second Council of Nice nor of that of the Council of Trent which confirms what was defined by the Decrees of Councils and particularly of the Second Council of Nice against those that opposed Images which saith expresly That Men must have in the Churches the Images of Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mother of God and of other Saints and render to them the honour and Veneration due Which adds in speaking of the said Images We kiss them we salute them we prostrate our selves before them All that is not to serve Images if we believe my Lord of Condom We see every day before our eyes that Images are cloath'd anew on Feast-days that some are carried in Pomp that Men prostrate themselves before them that they kiss them that they burn to their honour both Incense and Torches that they place them on Altars and after all that they tell us with an air of Assurance We serve not Images God forbid God be witness of the Justice of our Complaint and of the sincerity of this Justification My Lod of Condom saith but one word of Relicks I will not say much more He may turn this Worship of Relicks as pleases him but he shall never make us relish the adoring of Ashes Bones Linnens Wood and such other things I would not pretend to be nicely quarrell'd about that word of Adoring I use it in the same sense that the Gentlemen of Port-Royal who are exact enough in the choice of Terms They say in justifying the Religious Nuns That my Lord Bishop of Toul hath thought good they should follow the Devotion of the People and of many Persons of Condition which came and are still coming to adore this Holy Thorn They relate of a Religious of Maisen Dieu at Vernon That she would be carried to Port-Royal to adore that Holy Thorn And of one Madam Durand That she was cured of a Vomiting which had troubled her for Two years Ten months after having adored and kissed the Holy Thorn They conclude at last It suffices to say That if God did not make his help to be felt or hoped there are no Human Considerations that could carry so many Persons to come to the Towns end to adore this Holy Thorn in the Church of
adoring what is not God This is what I had to say of Adoration after that I leave it to be judged if it were a business to be ended in a Period It is great Wisdom in Monsieur de Condom to have drawn a Curtain of Silence over a Worship for the Justification whereof nothing was to be said But the Care of our Salvation must oblige us not to abide by that which he hath said unto us for we must consider this Article as being capable of keeping us in an Eternal Separation from the Roman Church though it were that alone about which we could not agree ARTICLE XII Of the Sacrifice of the Mass WE are come at last to the Sacrifice of the Mass This is the place wherein they believe that Monsieur de Condom and the Author of the Advertisement do triumph in Explications and in Sweetnings I wonder how the World do blind themselves without any appearing Reason As for me I never conceived any thing in the Sacrifice of the Mass but what Monsieur de Condom makes us see therein and yet have I always minded that Affair as the greatest that can be between two Religions I always believed that according to the Roman Church the Eucharist was made a true Sacrifice Doth Monsieur de Condom deny it On the contrary he speaks it in Terms as express as may be So the Son of God is put on the Holy Table by virtue of these Words c. Jesus Christ being present doth there renew and perpetuate in some sort the Memory of his Obedience to the death of the Cross So that nothing is wanting there to be a true Sacrifice And a little after A Sacrifice nevertheless most true in that Jesus Christ is truly contained and presented to God under this figure of Death I always conceived that this Sacrifice is not only a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving but that it is truly Propitiatory Dare Monsieur de Condom deny it I think not for they are the very Words of the Council of Trent Docet Sancta Synodus Sacrificium istud verè Propitiatiorum The Holy Council declares that it is a Sacrifice truly Propitiatory And I find that Monsieur de Condom agrees thereto in these Words We think that this Oblation causes God to become mere propitious to us and therefore we call it Propitiatory We present to God the Lord Jesus Christ in a true Sacrifice as our only Victim and our only Propitiation by his Blood Either I understand nothing in these Terms or they signifie that we offer the Lord Jesus Christ in a Sacrifice truly Propitiatory to God to render him propitious to us and to obtain remission of our Sins It is a true Sacrifice according to Monsieur de Condom it is also a Propitiatory Sacrifice according to him There is no need of Logick to conclude then according to him it is a Sacrifice truly Propitiatory In fine I have conceived that in this Sacrifice the Church doth the Office of an Offerer that Jesus Christ is the Victim and that God is he to whom they offer that Oblation truly Propitiatory Have we been mistaken I think not for I believe I see that very thing in these Words of Monsieur de Condom We unite our selves to him in that state and we offer him to God as our only Victim This is the state of the Controversie and I never conceived another To annihilate this Controversie those Gentlemen fain some differences among us that never were The Author of the Advertisement saith That we regard with horrour the Sacrifice of their Altars as if they should make Jesus Christ to die once again We declare that we never had such a thought I conceive not how these Gentlemen have forgotten that one of our Proofs against this Sacrifice is drawn thence That Jesus Christ dieth not there We say there never was a true Sacrifice of a living Oblation wherein the Oblation did not receive death How then should we accuse them to cause Jesus Christ to die on their Altars Monsieur of Condom to cause to reapproach to him amplifies the Terms of Sacrifice and Commemoration which they and we make use of because we agree that the Eucharist is the Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ He concludes that then according to us it is a Sacrifice of Commemoration We must not mistake here there is difference between the Commemoration of a Sacrifice and a Sacrifice of Commemoration as between the Day and the Night In fine Monsieur of Condom labours hard to tell us That they have no design to offer to God a new Payment and that it is not a new Oblation We know it well enough the Council of Trent had told us so and even had said more too It is saith it one single and the same Oblation and he that offers himself now by the Ministry of the Priest is the same that offered himself on the Cross But doth that avail any thing towards the bottom of the Question Be it the same Oblation and the same Sacrifice and consequently the same payment will that hinder the Question from remaining the same viz. If it be just and reasonable to present daily Jesus Christ in a Sacrifice truly Propitiatory for the Sins both of the Living and of the Dead We must presently see whether this be so small a Controversie as they would perswade us and if we can re-enter into the Roman Church whilst this Sacrifice shall subsist there To dispatch this difference I must pray the Doctours to make some Reflexions with me 1. I will suppose a Truth which cannot be gainsaid that is That Sacrifices have always made up the Essence of that which they call the Externals of Religion and consequently they are always an Essential difference among Religions With the Pagans one Religion was made to differ from others by their Sacrifices Paganism was different from the Judaism by their Sacrifices which had another Object another Matter and which were done in Ceremonies very different In fine It seems to me that the Essential difference for the Exteriour between the Religion of the Ancient Jews and that of the Christians consists in that they had Sacrifices and we have none for it is not that we serve another God than that of the Israelites it is that we serve him otherwise That being so is it not true that there is an Essential difference among Christians that have Sacrifices and they that offer none If there had been any Jews who had denied the Necessity of Sacrifices and who had condemned the use of killing Oblations in the Temple of Jerusalem would not those People have been the Abomination of all the rest of the People If they had made a Party if they had separated and that they had built a new Temple where they had offered no Sacrifice to God had Men believed that those People had had the same Religion with the other Jews because they had worshipp'd the same God who
brought them out of Egypt If it be the Intention of Jesus Christ that there shall be in his Church a perpetual Sacrifice of his Body and of his Blood we must not flatter our selves we follow not the Religion of Jesus Christ But if that continual Sacrifice hath not been instituted by the Lord assuredly they make a new Christianism and a new Religion The Question then is to know if without any other Mystery we should pass into a Religion which is Essentially different from ours 2. But it is not only the Question to know If Men should introduce into the Church a new Sacrifice but if Men should Sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God It is the greatest Oblation the Noblest and most important in the World And that deserves well methinks to have Reflexion made thereon before we engage to Re-union whereto they invite us If any rash Person would sprinkle with the Blood of Oxen and Sheep their Altars according to the Usage of all People and of the Ancient Church there would not be Thunders enough to crush to death such an Undertaker If such an Impious Man should form a Society wherein they might practice such Sacrifices they would arm all the Powers of Christianism to abolish such a Religion Yet would that agitation be but about the Sacrifices of some Beasts The business is to Sacrifice the God of Heaven the Master of the World and they will perswade us that it is a business of Nothing 3. The Question again is to know Whether they should put into the hands of a Man the GOD of the Universe as an Oblation in the hands of a Sacrificer that is if we should debase the Creatour into the hands of a Creature It is a Truth which good Sense dictates among all Nations and all Ages that the Sacrificer is greater than the Oblation Without contradiction the lesser is blessed of the greater It is the Principle of St. Paul the Priest blesses the Oblation They put the Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of a Priest as an Oblation they then lift up the Priest above Jesus Christ We cannot but have regard to that as to a very good Affair 4. We cannot also keep our selves from seeing that this Doctrine doth annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by good and legitimate Consequences If the Lord Jesus Christ was to have Successors in his Off ce of Priest he is not then himself an Eternal Priest Either St. Paul's Reasoning is bad or my Proof is invincible For in fine I Reason like him He said If Perfection had been in the Levitical Priesthood was it needful that another Priest should arise after the Order of Melchisedeck and who should not be called after the Order of Aaron The Priesthood being changed there must of need be a change of the Law I say the same If Perfection was found in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Priest of Melchisedecks Order why should Men introduce new Priests which much more like to be after the Order of Aaron than after the Order of Melchisedeck And if the setling of a new Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck hath overthrown the Levitical Priesthood doth not the Priesthood of these Sacrifices annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ This is your Errour say they you suppose that this is a new Priesthood and it is not so for it is the same it is the Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck which is Eternal because it abides still in the Church and without that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ would not be Eternal after the way of that of Melchisedeck Why would Men oblige us to believe things that are incredible to justifie the Church of Rome They tell us That the Priesthood of their Priests is the same as that of Jesus Christ I know not whether Heaven and Earth are more distant and if Light and Darkness be more different Jesus Christ is God those Priests are Men. Jesus Christ abides for ever those Priests die No Man succeeds Jesus Christ Priests succeed one the other Jesus Christ offered not for himself the Priests offer for their own Sins as for those of the People Jesus Christ is Holy separate from Sinners Priests are often engaged into great Disorders Jesus Christ hath offered once one sole Sacrifice these offer every day and reiterate their Sacrifice Jesus Christ finishes his Sacrifice in the Holy Places not made with hands Priests make their Sacrifices upon Altars of Stone and in Temples made by Mans hand In fine Melchisedeck was a singular Man and only it must needs be therefore that he who was to sustain that Priesthood whereof his was the Figure should be a singular and only Person but the Priests are in great Numbers After that can Men deny that Priests are Sacrificers much rather like the Order of Aaron than that of Melchisedeck And if it be so we say it once more The Establishment of their Priesthood destroys that of Christ by good Consequence Though that should be granted say they it is a disavowed Consequence and which by consequence should not prove an obstacle to the Re-union To that I say Though Men disavow it yet we see it and fear it still because it produces actually its effect It is not in Points of Practise as in those of Speculation In these it is true so the Consequence be disavowed it must not be imputed although it do arise from the Speculative Principles of those that disavow it But when a Practise or Worship destroy by consequence an important Truth that is in vain to disavow the Consequence while People remain in the Worship and in that Practise they are actually guilty of having done prejudice against such a Truth For Example A Pagan doth joyn to the Adoration of God the Sovereign many Inferiour Deities We tell him That by this Worship he offers a great Wrong to the Soveraign God He may Answer That it is a Consequence which he disavows and that his Intention is to render an infinite Honour to this Soveraign God Because he disavows the Consequence is he justified 5. Finally We cannot keep our selves from seeing That the Sacrifice of the Mass doth a great dishonour to the Sacrifice of the Cross for if it be needful to reiterate every day that Sacrifice the first Oblation which was made thereof must have been insufficient We Reason as the Apostle that saith The Sacrifices that are offered every year cannot sanctifie them that have recourse to them otherwise they had ceased them from offering them since the Offerers being once sanctified should have had no more Conscience of Sin We Reason as these Doctors themselves We shall hear one of them presently saying to us If the Mass were infinite it were in vain to offer many Masses Let 's be permitted to say also If the value of the Sacrifice of the Cross were infinite it is in vain to offer so many others It is here that
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
one of these Sacraments at one blow I know not how that can be said seeing that according to our Principles he that divides the Sacrament destroys it and he that destroys it robs the Church of it They would have us reckon for nothing an Attempt happily the strangest which was ever seen in Religion All the World agrees that our Lord Jesus Christ hath Instituted this Sacrament under both Species that Antiquity hath so practised it and after Fourteen hundred Years they come to snatch it out of our hands These Doctours who boast of so perfect a Conformity to the Ancient Church do abandon it in this place which is of the chiefest importance They grant it they are not ashamed of it and they would have us like it and that we should account this Enterprize for nothing What can we account for nothing so manifest an Infraction of our Masters Orders which said so expresly Drink ye all of it It will avail nothing here to say That this Command is not addressed to all the Faithful but to the Priest alone It is an Illusion which I have no design to encounter The business is to know whether in our Principles we cannot Communicate under one kind Now seeing that after our Principles these words Drink ye all of it are addressed to all the Faithful we cannot retaining our Principles Communicate under one Kind without being Hypocrites Prevaricators and Rebels against the Orders of our Lord. But to make Men sensible how much this Enterprize is terrible and this Affair important I beseech them who have a Care of their Salvation to make with me the following Reflexions 1. That in all Sacraments and Sacrifices and generally in all Sacred Ceremonies of the Law there were parts so Essential that in ruining them Men had entirely destroy'd that part of Divine Service and of a Sacred Ceremony they had so made a Sacriledge Moses had ordained that every day twice in the Evening and Morning the Holocaust of a Lamb should be offered It is that which the Law called The Continual Sacrifice If they should have offered but one Holocaust at Noon and that they had Sacrificed a Bull instead of a Lamb is it not evident that it would have been a manifest Prevarication and that this Action would have passed before God for an Abomination God had also ordained That on that Solemn day which they called of Propitiations they should present two Goats that one of them should be Sacrificed for an Holocaust and that the other being charged with the Iniquity of the People should be sent into the Desart If they should have presented but One Goat instead of Two is it not evident that the Propitiation had not been made and that God would have considered that as a signal Prevarication And that an High Priest that had been guilty of such an Attempt would have been put to Death without Mercy As for me though I should strive yet cannot I perceive what difference there is between such Facts and This whereof we now treat Jesus Christ hath established us a Sacrament under both kinds of Bread and Wine he saith Eat Drink At a blow suddenly they steal away one Moiety from us they rob us of the Wine consecrate they forbid us to drink thereof and they would have us to regard that as a Sacrament and as the same Sacrament 2. Let 's consider besides that the Efficacy and Virtue of Sacraments depend absolutely on their Institution and the Will of their Author For in fine at the bottom to eat a little of the Flesh of a roasted Lamb to suffer some Violence in ones Flesh by Circumcision to be washed with a little Water in it self cannot be of any Virtue And Ceremonies have no Efficacy but because God hath instituted them and hath promised to accompany them with the Virtue of his Grace and of his Spirit But is it not true that he hath not promised to accompany Sacraments with his Virtue but on Condition that Men should keep close to the Ceremonies that himself hath Instituted Circumcision was to be done in certain Parts if they had done it on the Lips or Ears instead of being a Seal of the Covenant it had been a depravation evident of the Covenant which would have provoked God instead of procuring his Grace They were to roast the Paschal Lamb to eat it with bitter Herbs if instead of that they had roasted a Beef or had boiled the Lamb and that they had eaten this Lamb with a sweet Sawce who can deny but that instead of a Sacrament it had been a Sacriledge God would not have shed any Virtue on that corrupted Ceremony and this Change would absolutely have ruined the Efficacy of the Sacrament If instead of Baptizing with Water any should Baptize with Dirt or any other such thing or in retaining Water any should alter visibly the Sense of the Sacramental Words of Baptism I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost could Men believe that this Sacrament would confer Remission of Sins It is clear that God hath engaged himself to give his Grace with his Sacraments but not with Mens Sacraments When Men change the Institution of a Divine Sacrament they make an Human Sacrament to which God hath promised nothing Therefore it is a most clear Evidence that in retranching the Moiety of the Signs in the Sacrament of the Eucharist they ruine the Efficacy thereof they banish the Spirit of God and estrange his Grace from it For Jesus Christ hath not promised to afford his Grace but to such Sacraments as he hath instituted and as he hath instituted it After that they should have us reckon it for nothing that they take from us one of the Means whereby this Saving Grace and Efficacy are communicated is that Just 3. These same Reflexions make us see with the fullest Evidence that the Retranchment of the Cup destroys and ruins the Sacrament of the Eucharist For a Sacrament is a certain Assemblage of Ceremonies instituted of God and if you take away one part of these Ceremonies it is no more the same Sacrament That appears by what I have said of the Passover Circumcision and Baptism in which if Men should make any notable Change by way of Retranchment they would have ruined them I say by way of Retranchment because one may alter Sacraments by way of Addition without ruining them The vain Ceremonies which the Jews had loaden the Passover with did not absolutely destroy it and the useless Pomp wherewith they have cloath'd the Sacrament of Baptism among Christians hinders not its Efficacy When the Essential parts remain what is added doth incommodate and hurt yea load the Subject but the Essence of that Subject subsists But when they have taken away one of the Essential parts all things which Men add beyond the Institution cannot restore what they have spoiled And thence it is clear that both the Signs being equally Essential in
a true Sacrament as to the Sign I Answer That it is a true Sacrament as to the Thing signified It is certain that to speak exactly he doth not take with his Mouth the Sacrament of Jesus Christ for this Sacrament is composed of Two parts and he receives but One But he receives Jesus Christ signified by the Sacrament and receives as much of Graces as they that Communicate of the Sacrament it self Why Because the Sacrament is entirely presented to him because he receives it in his desire and heart and because only an insuperable Impossibility hinders him from communicating of the Sign Suppose we that a Man is found which hath the same aversion for the Bread as for the Wine that never was it may be found but it is not impossible This Man will come to the Lords Table he will take with his hand the one and the other Sign he 'l bring them near to his Mouth but he will return them not being able to pass further What doth that Man Doth he take a true Sacrament Not at all he takes not the Sacrament he recelves the Spiritual things presented under the Sacrament that is Grace But to what purpose doth he come near the Table to receive nothing there For he might have received Grace without stirring from home He comes to make unto God a solemn Protestation that his Impotency is the only cause that hinders him from partaking of the Signs that he thirsts after his Grace that he desires to have part in the efficacy of the Sacrament and to shew to all the Faithful that he doth not deprive himself of those Sacred Signs out of contempt of Religion If those Doctours do not relish this Theology I beseech them to hear St Bernard that tells them It is not Privation of the Sacrament that damns but Contempt I conjure them to consult all the Theologues of their School and examine what they say of Baptism of Vow or the Vow of Baptism There is none but saith That he who desires sincerely and ardently to receive Baptism and dies without partaking of the Sign doth nevertheless receive the Efficacy and all the Virtue of Baptism ARTICLE XIV Of Holy Scripture WE have upon this Article very important Controversies with the Roman Church of the Perfection of Scripture of its Obscurity of its Authority also touching the Utility and Necessity of Reading the said Holy Scripture of the Soveraign Judge of Controversies and of Traditions Monsieur de Condom passes almost all these under Silence and wraps it up in few Words except the Question of its Authority which he Treats of a little more largely I have no design neither to make here large Common places upon these Controversies Volumes have been sufficiently written on both sides to compose great Libraries I will only say That all the dexterity of Monsieur de Condom will never make us to pass this for a thing of small importance We shall never relish that any should make it their Task to speak ill of Holy Scripture It is a wicked Character and a bad Prejudice for these Doctours Cause When Men speak ill of their Judge and that they seek for Means of Recusation against him it is a Proof that they do not believe him favourable to their Interest If the Roman Church believed the Scripture to be on their side they would not seek out so many Means to make her lose her Credit with the People It is a thing that could never be believed if we did not see it That Christians should busie themselves to prove that the Book which includes the Doctrine that saves them from Hell is an imperfect and mutilate Book gnawed by the Teeth of Time depraved and corrupted by the Jews and by the Hereticks that it contains but a little part of the Doctrine of the Church that they must add thereto the Help of Traditions That it is an an Obscure Book that Men cannot understand it without the help of the Church that God hath filled it with Rocks and Shelfs that proud Spirits might be wracked thereon That it is a Leaden Rule which Men turn what way they please that Hereticks may easily abuse it to fight against the Truth that we find not Light enough therein to dissipate the Darkness of Errour that it is a Labyrinth wherein Men are necessarily lost when they are not conducted that it hath no Authority in regard to us without the Testimony of the Church that it hath not Characters of Divinity sufficient to prove it self that it cannot explain it self by clear Places of what it saith in obscure Passages that without the Authority of the Church we should be no more obliged to believe it to be Divine than any other Book that the Lecture of this Book is dangerous that one must extreamly distinguish the Persons to whom the Reading thereof should be permitted that Versions in the Vulgar Tongue cannot appear without peril that the People should not have liberty of handling these Sacred Books They would have us to hear all these things patiently and that we should keep Silence thereat But that cannot be We should be the most base and the most ungrateful of all Men if we should abandon the Defence of a Book to which alone we are beholding next to God for our Eternal Salvation They will not fail to tell us that we are Calumniators and they speak not with that contempt of the Holy Scripture They will bring us the Testimonies of some particular Persons of the latter days which have spoken of it with grand Eloges and Praises And I could relate the Words of other particulars and would bring an hundred for one which speak thereof in the Terms which I expressed just now If Monsieur de Cedeau Bishop of Grass if the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have spoken of this Scripture with the Respect due thereto that hath not been regarded as their fair side and best Character And all the World knows the Violent Persecutions whereto some have been exposed because of that Monsieur de Condom may say what he pleases in favour of Tradition but we maintain That it is an opening of the Door to all the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship There is none so strange and so opposite to the Spirit of Christianism that may not enter into the Church under this Name of Tradition Sad Experience teaches us enough thereof It is this Word that filled with Images the Temples of Christians to the great Scandal of those who are jealous of the Purity of Worship It is that which introduced into Religion the Service of Creatures Invocation of Saints the Worship of the Holy Virgin Pilgrimaget Adoration of Relicks and so many other such like things If the Roman Church were reduced to defend her self only by Scripture she should soon be driven to forsake the most part of her Worship and of her Devotions But where Scripture fails her Tradition is an obscure Spring entangled and Profound which furnishes with all
that she pleases Methinks it is very unjust to wrangle with People and impose it for a Crime on them that they will not believe but God alone speaking in the Scriptures and by the Pen of his Prophets and Apostles With what Justice would they have us to regard as a small business that Enterprize to have taken away the Word of God in the Book thereof from the hands of the People Is not that a Capital Affair Where shall Knowledge be drawn if the Spring thereof be shut up Where shall Men learn to know God aright if they rob the People of that Book where God himself makes himself known When I see that they say with Confidence That it is not true that they have forbidden the Lecture of the Word of God that dismays me and drives my Patience to the utmost I know not how Men can contradict so a Publick Authority It is true that there are some in the Roman Church which condemn that Prohibition made to the People of Reading the Holy Scripture and I could wish no fairer Discourse thereon than what hath said the Author of the Dialogues between the two Parishioners of Saint Hilary du Mont. But what was said of those Persons They say they have borrowed the Weapons of Hereticks and have brightned them the more They accuse them to oppose the Sentiments of the Church because that the Church conducted by Gods Spirit permits not indifferently the Reading of Holy Scripture to all Persons without the Advice and Explication of Ecclesiastical Superiours for fear lest the Difficulty or Obscurity of Understanding in some places should produce Scruples and Errours in Mens Spirits It being certain that all Heresies which are born in its bosom have always their foundation and their defence in the Words of the Holy Scripture ill understood It is the Lord Bishop of Ambrun who speaks in his Ordinance against the Traduction of Mons. I think he knows what he saith for the least thing that may be granted to an Archbishop it is that he should know Religion And indeed doth not all the World know that the Rules which are at the Head of the Index Expurgatorius forbid the Lecture of the Holy Word of God excepting those who shall have permission from their Ordinary of the Curate or the Confessor It is not a Decree of the Council of Trent will they say No but it is the Spirit of the Council They are Theologians deputed by the Council of Trent that speak it It is Pope Pius the Fourth who presided in that Council and who possessed the Spirit thereof Sixtus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth Successours of Pius the Fourth ought to have had the Spirit of the Church Methinks it is they that say That by the Command and Use of the Holy Inquisition Romaine Universella the Power of permitting the reading or retaining the Bible in the Vulgar Tongue both of the Old and of the New Testament hath been taken away from Bishops Inquisitors or Superiours of the Regulars Let Men but read the last Writings which have been made thereabout upon the occasion of the Version of Mons the Ordinances of my Lords of Paris and of Ambrun the Writings of Father Annat and all the Apologies which have been made for the Defence of those Pieces and Men shall see whether it be true That the Reading of Scripture be permitted and ordained to all the World I must remit those that will be instructed in this Matter to the Book of Monsieur Mallet where Men shall see the Councils Popes Cordinals Bishops Faculties of Theology and the Theologues agreeing in this Article It is That the Reading of the Word of God is dangerous when it is permitted to all the World But is there need of Proofs for a thing that is seen Where is there a Reading of the Word of God in favour of the People Is it in the Church If they Read any part thereof it is in a strange Tongue it is no more for Instruction It is for Prayer as said a Franciscan in the Council of Trent Is it in Private Houses But in what Country doth the People know the Word of God of himself Certainly in Spain and in Italy the Bible is that of all Books that the People knows least of In France some honest Persons read it but their Number is very small It is not charged as a Duty upon any Person happily there are not of a Thousand One that hath cast his Eyes upon this Sacred Book Thence comes the profound Ignorance of most People even of those who distinguish themselves by their quality or by their Character We must not flatter our selves We shall never regard that Conduct as coming from the Spirit of God and we shall never re-enter into a Church which treats Holy Scripture with so much Injustice ARTICLE XV. Of the Church AS for the Authority of the Church it cannot be an Affair of little Importance seeing the Question is whether the Tribunal of it shall be lifted up above the Holy Scripture Monsieur de Condom cannot be ignorant that this Controversie of the Infallible Authority of the Church is an Article so Capital that thereon depends all the Re-union whereto they invite us Whilst that the Roman Church shall call it self Infallible she will shut the Door against all Reformation and as long as she shall refuse all Reformation she cannot hope that we shall return into her Bosom This Doctrine of Infallibility is the most dangerous that could ever enter into the Church because it opens the way to all sorts of Errours and Superstitions and takes away all liberty of Examining those things which Use or Authority have once established A Church that calls her self Infallible boldly establishes boldly what she wills and what may be found useful for its Interest And after that there is no more any Means to return We must also be permitted to say That this is an Affair of the highest Importance seeing the Foundation of the Faith of our People depends thereon They would not have us to establish it on the Holy Scripture which is the Stay and Pillar of Truth and they would have us to knowledge all that we must believe as from the Church without being able to tell us which is this Church and where are the Titles of its Infallibility These Gentlemen do thrust us very hardly upon the Authority of Scripture the diversity of its Senses upon the liberty whereof they accuse us as given to Women and to Artificers to interpret it after their manner and to make themselves a new Religion if it seems good to them But I know not how they mind not that with all their Maxims of Submission and blind Obedience for their Interpretations of the Church they must cast the Faith of their People into an incertitude greater a thousand times than that wherein they say that we are It is the Church say they to whose Interpretations we must cleave I will but let them
High Treason to acknowledge this Usurper We must then be perswaded that this Authority which they call Of the Holy Siege is legitimate before that it can be honestly done to sollicite us to submit thereto There hath been a time wherein God had charged himself with the Care of Governing immediately the Common-wealth of the Hebrews by Prophets and inspired Judges whom he sent to them If any during that time had undertaken without a Call to make himself Monarch of that People is it not true that by this attempt the Usurper had made himself guilty less against the Nation whereof he would oppress the Liberty than against God upon whose Rights he had undertaken That People though inclined to Revolt durst not make them a King they ask one of God If that Nation had otherwise used it it is certain it had been Criminal before God as much as may be If we will consider this Reflexion we shall see that Protestants in their Principles must regard as guilty of the highest Enterprize against the Rights of God Him that without Call hath made himself the Head of this Church and it will be granted that without the greatest baseness they cannot submit to that Prince who hath seized upon God's Rights without his permission In fine It is impossible that Protestants should regard as Indifferent or as Tolerable in Christian Religion a Dignity which is absolutely opposite to the Spirit of Christianism This Spirit is Humility Poverty Despising the World Obedience Renouncing all kind of Pomp Grandeur and Vanity After that they would have us to regard as Prince Spiritual of the Christian World a Man that is Crowned with all the Pomp of the Kings of the Earth that makes his Feet to be kissed by the Persons of the greatest Quality that is carried on Mens Shoulders and who carries the Rights of Soveraignty and the Characters of Puissance beyond what was ever imagined But after having considered the Pope is the Theology of Politicians who keep within general Terms why should it not be lawful to us to regard him in an Italian Theology See what it is in this Italian Theology It is a Man that cannot be tied nor untied by a Regular Power who was called God by Constantine Now it is manifest that God cannot be judged by Men. It is a Man whose Faults cannot be admonished on Earth though he should be known to neglect his own Salvation and that of his Brethren useless and relaxed in his Works silencing the Good and leading with himself Crowds of Men to the first slavery of Hell because being setled to judge all the rest He may not be judged of any It is a Man whom none of the Councils lawfully Assembled durst ever judge because he is the Judge of all On the contrary Councils have often cried The first Seat is Judged of none and they say to the Pope Judge your self Justifie or Condem your self It is a Man whereof the Roman Ceremonial saith That as oft as the Emperour seeth him he ought to salute him bare his Head and kneel to him approach his Throne kiss his Feet devoutly hold his Stirrup till he be got up then takes his Horse by the Bridle and leads him some Paces And in whatever Town where the Pope is to be carried in a Chair the Prince of the place though he were a King must carry the Chair some steps with the greatest Lords of the Country It is a Man that can do all what is needful to lead Souls to Paradise and may take away all Obstacles which the World and the Devil with all their Strength and Craft can oppose It is a Man that can suffer the Title of Vice-God as Paul the Fifth in the beginning of this Age. They made Pictures and Dedications with this Inscription Paulo Quinto Vice-Deo c. Most Invincible of the Christian Republick c. It is a Man of whom the Canonists say Restituit Papa solus deponit ipse Dividit ac unit eximit atque probat Articulos solvit Synodumque facit Generalem transfert mutat appellat nullus ab illo That is to say That he alone settles deposes divides unites condemns approves breaks Articles makes Councils transports and changes according to his good pleasure without appeal It is a Man that gives Realms at his Will loosens Subjects from their Oath made to their Prince who is Master of the Temporal of Kings It is a Man who alone possesses the Priviledge of Infallibility and who is the only Oracle of the Church It is a Man that can dispense against Laws Divine and Human and according to the plenitude of his Power dispences above Right and Law dispences against Apostles and their Canons against the Old Testament about Tithes Vows and Oaths It is a Man whom they set upon the Altar when he is Chosen and then to go to Adoration It is a Man that can suffer to be told in a full Council Do so that we may never lose the Spirit Life and Salvation which thou hast given us Thou art the Pastour the Physician the Pilot the Patron Thou art in fine God on Earth It is a Man that likes it well that in the same Council they should apply to him these Words of Psalm 72. Aethiopians shall come c. his Enemies shall lick the dust all Kings shall adore him all Nations shall serve him It is there also where they stiled him The Divine Majesty In fine He is a Man that likes to be called Lord of Lords Most Prudent Most Wise Adored of all Men. If this Power be not lawful why would they have us to submit thereto How could that agree with our Principles These are happily the things which Monsieur de Condom means and whereof he saith That Ministers cease not to relate them to render that Power odious You know well say they that this Italian Theology is slighted They do not Canonize in France the Excess of the Canonists contrarily they are condemned And you cannot be ignorant that the Gallican Church hath still opposed them I grant it if they please Why then would they that I should regard the Pope under the Idea which the Gallican Church forms rather than under that which the Roman Church I always heard say That to know a Subject we must not regard him in the Opinion which certain Persons have of him but in himself in that which he saith of himself and what he doth Now it is certain that the Pope is in himself what the Canonists have made him and that he thinks of himself what the Canonists have said for it is he that hath caused those Canonists to write It is the Canon Law of the Roman Church approved generally by the Court of Rome and according to which they rule their Conduct The Gallican Church may do what they please the Pope doth still keep himself in the possession of Excommunicating Kings dispensing their Subjects to the
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