of Trent must be again Corrupted by him in order to it He tells us he can allow of Honouring them but that the Council of Trent says We are to Worship them and that by so doing we shall obtain many Benefits and Graces of God That these Sacred Monuments are not unprofitably revered but are TO BE SOVGHT VNTO for the obtaining their help and assistance to cure the Sick to give Eyes to the Blind Feet to the Lame and even Life to the Dead Any one to hear these words quoted as from the Council of Trent would really think we pray'd and sought unto those Relics that we might obtain sight for the Blind c. whereas the words of the Council express no such thing which to the end you may not think I Cavil I will here give you as they lye Sanctorum quoque martyrum aliorum cum Christo viventium sancta corpora quoe viva membra fuerunt Christi templum Spiritus sancti ab ipso ad oeternam vitam suscitanda glorificanda à fidelibus veneranda esse per quoe multa bèneficia à Deo hominibus proestantur ita ut affirmantes Sanctorum Reliquiis venerationem atque honorem non deberi vel eas aliaque sacra monumenta à fidelibus inutiliter honorari atque eorum opis impetrandoe causâ Sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari omnino damnandos esse prout jam pridem eos damnavit nunc etiam damnat Ecclesia Sess 25. dic de Iovoc c. The Holy Catholic Church teaches also that the Holy Bodies of Saints and Martyrs living with Christ which were the living Members of Christ and the Temples of the Holy Ghost and are one Day to be raised again to Eternal Life and glorified by him are to be Venerated by the Faithful Hieronymus advers Vigilantium by which Bodies many benefits have been granted by God to Men So that they who affirm that no Veneration or Honour is due to the Relics of Saints or that those Relics and other Sacred Monuments are unprofitably honoured by the Faithful or that they do in vain frequent the Memories of the Saints to the end they may obtain their aid the aid of the Saints eorum are wholly to be condemned Conc. Nic. 2. Can. 7. as the Church do's now and has also formerly condemned them You see there is not one word here of Worshipping them unless we take Veneration for it which in some sence may pass but not in this neither is there one word of seeking to these Sacred Monuments to obtain their help and assistance to cure the Sick c. These are wholly his own inventions put upon us for the words of the Council he might very well say these were fond things vainly invented c. we require them not from him All we desire is what he professes they are ready to perform We will says he Honour the Relics of the Saints as the Primitive Church did Pag. 18. We will respect the Images of our Saviour and the Blessed Virgin and as some of us now bow towards the Altar and all of us are enjoyned to do so at the Name of the Lord JESUS so will we not fail to testifie all due Respect to his Representation We will not quarrel with him about the manner how we ought to call that Respect and Honour and if any of ours say that Honour and Respect being only due upon account of the Things they represent and no ways upon their own ought therefore to have the same Denomination with that which is due to the Original I hope such an Explication being no ways injurious to the Originals deserves not so severe a Censure as some of them are pleased to give it neither ought the Church which is not concerned with those Opinions which are purely Scholastic to suffer for what is probably disputed of in the Schools Those who would see more of this Point may be pleas'd to read the Just Discharge to Dr. Stillingfleet 's Vnjust Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome and Veron's Rule of Faith upon this Head and they who have not those Books may be pleas'd to reflect seriously upon the foregoing Passages and this following transcribed out of the Council of Trent Imagines porro Christi Deiparoe Virginis aliorum Sanctorum in templis proesertim habendas retinendas eisque debitum honorem venerationem impertiendam non quod credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas vel virtus propter quam sint colendoe vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum vel quod fiducia in imaginibus sit figenda veluti olim fiebat à Gentibus Psal 134. quoe in idolis spem suam collocabant sed quoniam honos qui eis exhibetur refertur ad prototypa quoe illoe reproesentant ita ut per imagines quas osculamur coram quibus caput aperimus procumbimus Christum adoremus Sanctos quorum illoe similitudinem gerunt Conc. Nic. 2. Actio 3 4 6. veneremur id quod Concilorum presertim vero secundoe Nicoenoe Synodi decretis contra imaginum oppugnatores est sancitum Illud vero diligenter doceant Episcopi per historias mysteriorum nostroe redemptionis picturis vel aliis similitudinibus expressas erudiri confirmari populum in articulis fidei commemorandis assidue recolendis tum vero ex omnibus sacris imaginibus magnum fructum percipi non solum quia admonetur populus beneficiorum munerum quoe à Christo sibi collata sunt sed etiam quia Dei per Sanctos miracula salutaria exempla oculis Fidelium subjiciuntur ut pro iis Deo gratias agant ad Sanctorumque imitationem vitam moresque suos componant excitenturque ad adorandum ac diligendum Deum ad pietatem colendam Si quis autem his decretis contraria docuerit aut senserit anathema sit In has autem sanctas salutares observationes si qui abusus irrepserint eos prorsus aboleri sancta Synodus vehementer cupit ita ut nulloe falsi dogmatis imagines rudibus periculosi erroris occasionem proebentes statuantur Quod si aliquando historias narrationes sacroe Scripturoe cum id indoctoe plebi expediet exprimi figurari contigerit doceatur populus non propterea divinitatem figurari quasi corporeis oculis conspici vel coloribus aut figuris exprimi possit Sess 25. Dec. de Invoc c. Moreover the Catholic Church teaches That the Images of JESVS CHRIST of the Blessed Virgin-Mother of God and of other Saints are to be had and retained especially in Churches and that due Honour and Reverence is to be given them not that we believe any Divinity or Vertue to be in them for which they ought to be worshipped or that we ought to ask any thing of them or put our confidence in Images as the Pagans did who put their trust in Idols but because the Honour which is
from granting this to them that on the contrary we always accuse them of Innovations and denying those Articles which are Fundamental and as necessary and as plainly revealed as many of those others which they admit We always affirm We are in possession of our Doctrines and our Practices that these have been delivered down to us by our Predecessors as Truths revealed to the Prophets and Apostles we always tell them We have the Decisions of a Church in our behalf a Church I say 1 Tim. 3.15 which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth Matth. 16.18 a Church against which the Gates of Hell by the express Promise of JESUS CHRIST was never to prevail Eph. 4.11 12 c. and in which Pastors and Teachers were to remain for ever lest we should be led away with every wind of Doctrine We tell them He who denies one Article revealed by God and proposed by his Church as so revealed is as guilty of the Breach of Faith as he who denies them all because he rejects God's Veracity upon which that Faith is grounded And by consequence we cannot but tell them That whilst they renounce those Articles which we believe are revealed Truths they are guilty of Fundamental Errors and hold not the Ancient and Vndoubted Foundation of the Christian Faith So that the true State of the Controversie in general betwixt Catholics and Protestants is whether they or we do Innovate they in refusing to believe those Doctrines we profess to have receiv'd with the Grounds of Christianity or we in maintaining our Possession And the Dispute is Whether Roman Catholics ought to maintain their Possession for which many Protestants themselves grant they have a Prescription of above 1000 Years or whether the Authorities brought by Protestants against the Roman Catholic Doctrine be so weighty that every Roman Catholic is oblig'd to renounce the Communion of that Church in which he was bred up and quit his Prescription and Possession Which certainly they are not obliged to do unless it can be plainly prov'd they have innovated or taught such Doctrines as overthrow those Truths which are on both Sides allow'd to be Divine This the Bishop of Condom knew they could never do and that our Doctrines when truly represented were so far from contradicting those mutually-received Articles of our Faith that on the contrary they confirm'd our Belief of them And therefore he undertook to separate the Articles of our Faith from what was falsly imputed to us and resolved to propose them according to the received Sence of the Church declared in the Council of Trent And whether he has faithfully perform'd this Undertaking or no is our present Question which we are to examine in these following Articles What do's it therefore avail this Author to tell us Pag. 6. he will in the following Articles endeavour to give a clear and free Account of what they can approve and what they dislike in the Doctrines of the Catholic Church unless he first shew us and that by some Authentic Acts of the Church that those are her Doctrines and secondly give us some assurance of greater Authority then the Prescription of the Roman Catholic Church that they are Novelties or Erroneous ART II. Religious Worship is terminated only in God THat all Religious Worship is terminated in God alone is the Biship of Condom's Assertion Art 2. and the Churches Doctrine to which both this and another later Author agree Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists Protesting c. but both of them will have the Invocation of Saints and the Honour which we pay to Images and Relics to be inconsistent with that Maxim What the Bishop has said is enough to satisfie any one who is not obstinate his Words are these The same Church teaches us Expos p. â— That all Religious Worship ought to terminate in God as its necessary End and that if the Honour which she renders to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints may in some sence be call'd Religious it is for its necessary relation to God From which Words it is plain the Bishop thought Religious Honour or Worship might be taken in a double sence the first strict and that he acknowledges is only due to God the other in a larger sence which may be paid to Creatures But how this other may be called Religious Honour he tells us is because of the reference which it has to God Thus that Civil Honour or Obedience which we pay to Magistrates if we do it for Conscience sake that is purely to obey the Ordinance of God may be not improperly call'd a Religious Honour or Obedience because by Honouring or Obeying them for God's sake we Honour and Obey God Thus to visit the orphan and the widow in their tribulations is called by St. James a clean and unspotted Religion James 1.27 But if we take Religion in a stricter sence for a Supreme and Sovereign Honour or an adhesion to an Independent Being with all the Powers of our Soul c. it is only proper to God and cannot be paid to Creatures and in that sence the Honour which we pay to our Blessed Lady and other Saints is far from being a Religious Honour Let Mary be Honoured Epiph. Haer. 79. but let God be Adored was the Saying of an ancient Father not with Divine Honour for that is due to God alone Soli Deo honor gloria but with an Inferiour Honour which if our Authors will not have us call Religious we will not dispute about the Name We ought not to deprive God of any thing that is due to him alone that we may give it to his Creatures neither Honour nor Worship nor Prayer nor Thanksgiving nor Sacrifice But yet we may honour those whom God has honoured we may give an inferiour Degree of Worship to those who are in some Degree of Honour above us in this World and why not to the Invisible Inhabitants of the other so it elevate them not above the State of Creatures We may pray to our Friends and Parents here on Earth to pray for us without derogating from our Duty to God and why the same may not be addressed to Saints and Angels who are no less our Friends without robbing God of what is his due is I must confess to me unintelligible If you tell me the first is only Civil or if it may be called a Religious Love or Honour Answ to Papist Protest p. 38. when it is done for God's sake yet it is but an extrinsecal Denomination from the Cause and Motive not from the Nature of the Act and therefore cannot make Gods of them we affirm the same of the second and renounce any other sort of Religious Worship which is so from the nature of the Act and by consequence only due to God This Distinction reflected on will be sufficient to answer all the Objections brought against our Doctrine by both those Authors And we cannot
us Do we not firmly believe the Holy Scriptures according to the Sence and unanimous consent of the Antient and Primitive Fathers Do we not embrace the three Creeds nay and believe all the fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion Do you not acknowledge us to be true Members of the Catholic Church and by Consequence your Brethren tho' you will have us to be unsound and weak If we maintain any Doctrines different from yours do we not shew you plain Texts of Scriture for most of them and the consent of Primitive Fathers and the acknowledged Practices of the Church for above 1000 Years for every one of them Do we not fix our Grounds upon the undoubted Word of God deliver'd down to us either by Writing or uninterrupted Tradition and explicated by the unanimous consent of the Pastors and Teachers in all times and places If we tell you a due Honour is to be paid to Images purely upon the account of being Representatives and not for themselves is it not agreeable to your own Practice who bow to the Altar keep uncover'd in a Church bend the Knees at the Name of JESVs not for the sake of the Altar Fabric or Sound but with a reference to the Victim which Consecrates the Altar to God who is in a peculiar manner present in the Church and to JESVS CHRIST the Son of God understood by that sound which Honour if it may be called Religious in some respect it is not manifestly because it tends ultimately to God himself If we desire the Saints and Angels who Reign in Heaven to Pray with us and for us to their and our Common Creator and if we acknowledge such Prayers are good and beneficial to aid and help us in our necessities we know no more injury is done to JESVS CHRIST our sole Redeemer by such Addresses than by your own to a Parent or a Friend we detest that Religion of Angels mentioned by the Apostle Col. 2. 18. accoding to that Sence that place manifestly bears and as the Antient Fathers understood it but we think with the same Fathers that a due Honour ought to be given them as to the Messengers and Friends of God And any undue Worship which elevates them above the pitch of our fellow Creatures we detest What more can any one in reason desire of us And if we pronounce Anathema's against those who deny it to be lawful to make such innocent Addresses or to pay such a due and limited Honour it is because they contradict Antiquity and the approved Fathers of the Church We acknowledge 't is true a Real Presence of the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST under the Species or Appearances of Bread and Wine and are we not assured of it by the very Words of JeSVS CHRIST by the manifest consent of Antiquity by the continual practice of both the Greek and Latin Churches If we be ignorant of the manner at least we are not of the thing And do's not your Chatechism and your most Learned Divines acknowledge as much your Confession of your ignorance of the manner of his being present do's not hinder you from acknowledging the Body and Blood of our Blessed Saviour to be verily and indeed taken and receiv'd not only by Faith but by the Faithful in the Lords Supper This Real Presence is grounded upon the Words of our Blessed Saviour This is my Body taken literally from whence also it necessarily follows that after the words of Consecration 't is not more Bread and Wine but the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST This Consequence of the Real Presence many Protestants themselves confess and acknowledge that if the words must be taken literally they must necessarily grant both Transubstantiation Adoration and all the rest of our Doctrines about this Sacrament And if any one ask us why we take it literally we may with the Bishop of Condom say they may as well ask us why we keep the High Road that is all the Fathers of the Church in all Ages having taken it in that Sence we ought no more to deviate from it than from a beaten Road. If we adore our Blessed Saviour in the Sacrament it is but a necessary Consequence of his Real Presence and what they who believe him present cannot but think themselves oblig'd to do We acknowledge that where Gods Commands are Positive they are indispensible and therefore if we judge Communion under both kinds not to be positively Commanded we judge so because the Church in all Ages dispensed with it and you your selves grant that in cases of necessity eveyr Pastor may give it under one kind only and is he not left judge when that case occurs and when he may make use of it These things considered I must use your own words Men and Brethren Pag. 84. consider we conjure you these things and if you please consider us too what we are and what our Manners and Conversation amongst you has been even when Perjury and Faction loaded us with all the Injuries Hell it self could invent and exercised their utmost severities upon us What also we are at present and how our change of Fortune makes us neither remember former Injuries nor desire to revenge them Believe us at least that we have no other ends but Truth no designs but to convince your Judgments and if we dare not be over curious in enquiring into the manner how the Mysteries that are revealed can possibly be true 't is because we know they are revealed and doubt not of Gods Veracity Believe us that we have no other Interest but the Salvation of our own Souls and those of others by endeavouring to represent our Doctrines as they truly are and soliciting the Children of the Church to return to their Mothers Bosome We are in possession the Proofs you bring against us are only Negatives and meer Conjectures you think them convincing Arguments but are not certain but that you may fail in your Concjectures You cannot shew one positive Argument against the Invocation of Saints either from Scripture or from Fathers Not one against the Doctrine of the Real Presence Transubstantiation Veneration of Images upon account of their Representations not one against the number of Sacraments not one to prove Communion under both kinds to be indispensible or that Children dying without Baptism are saved In a word you cannot shew one positive Argument against any one Doctrine of our Church if you state it right All you can say is it do's not appear to us out of Scripture it do's not appear to us from Antiquity shew us you say your Authentic Records your Deeds of Gift your Revelation and we will believe as if uninterrupted possession were not sufficietn Proof Our Plea is good olim possidio prior possidio If you will dispute our Title you must shew your positive Records of a more Antient Date But what need of so much bitterness whilst you plead your Cause Is it not enough to dispossess us
order to which the best Method will certainly be to keep close to the Point in Question which is whether the Bishop of Condom has truly represented the Doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church without either Palliating or Perverting it I say the Doctrine of the Church for we have nothing here to do with the Doctrine of the Schools Seeing therefore the Bishop of Condom professes to conform himself to the Doctrine of the Church as delivered in the Council of Trent to which all Catholics do submit They who will oppose his Exposition must if they will bring any solid Arguments against him shew he has corrupted that Council and given us a Doctrine which is neither conformable to that of this Council nor consistent with some other Public Authentic and Universally receiv'd Definitions and Decisions of the whole Church If any thing of this nature be produc'd I promise an Ingenuous return shall be made without the least Cavil or reflecting Language To aovid which I have one thing earnestly to beg of you that before you publish any thing of this nature you would be pleas'd to take the pains your selves to peruse the Authors cited by you and not to Transcribe Quotations nor take up things by hear-say You cannot be ignorant but it has ofen been objected to Protestant Writers by us that they are faulty in this and subject to great mistakes if not wilsul Prevarications I hope therefore you will hereafter consult at least your Reputations if the search after Truth be not a sufficient motive and take nothing from any of them without a serious examination of the Sence of the Authors quoted by them and a sincere Application of it to the Point in Question If you please to take that necessary Advice along with you for profitably reading Books of Controversie extracted out of Walsingham 's search into matters of Religion Part 3. c. 10. Printed at the end of the Second Edition of the Complaint of the French Clergy and follow it precisely I hope you your selves will one Day see the Truth and to the Glory of God profess it However this benefit will come by it that you will save others the pains of examining so many different Authors that you will remove that just occasion which is now given of censuring your Religion as not maintainable without such sinister doings and lastly you will free me from that troublesome and ungentile Office of demonstrating to the World that unsincerity which you have shewn in your Quotations the falsications of which I would not have taken notice of in this had not Truth and Religion been at Stake FINIS THE CONTENTS PART I. COntaining an Answer to the Preface Pag. 1 PART II. Art 1. Introduction 22 Art 2. Religious Worship is terminated in God only 27 Art 3. Invocation of Saints 29 Art 4. Images and Relics 31 Art 5. Of Justification 46 Art 6. Of Merits 48 Art 7. Satisfactions Purgatory and Indulgences 54 Art 8. Of the Sacraments in general 59 Art 9. Of Baptism 61 Art 10. Of Confirmation 63 Art 11. Of Penance and Confession 64 Art 12. Of Extream Vnction 68 Art 13. Of Marriage 70 Art 14. Of Holy Orders 71 Art 15. Of the Eucharist 72 Art 16. Of the Sacrifice of the Mass 94 Art 17. Of the Epistle to the Hebrews 96 Art 18. Reflections upon the foregoing Doctrine 97 Art 19. Communion under both Species 98 Art 20. Of the written and unwritten Word 100 Art 21. Of the Authority of the Church 101 Art 22. Authority of the Holy See and of Episcopacy 106 The Conclusion Ibid. A Catalogue of Books Printed for Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. And are to be Sold next door to his House in Black-fryers at Richard Cheese's REflections upon the Answer to the Papist Mis-represented c. Directed to the Answerer Quarto Kalendarium Catholicum for the Year 1686. Octavo Papists Protesting against Protestant-Popery In Answer to ā Discourse Entituled A Papist not Mis-represented by Protestants Being a Vindication of the Papist Mis-represented and Represented and the Reflections upon the Answer Quart Copies of Two Papers Written by the late King Charles II. Together with a Paper Written by the late Dutchess of York Published by his Majesty's Command Folio The Spirit of Christianity Published by his Majesty's Command Twelves The first Sermon Preach'd before their Majesties in English at Windsor on the first Sunday of October 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. P. E. Monk of the Holy Order of S. Benedict and of the English Congregation Published by his Majesty's Command Quarto Second Sermon Preached before the King and Queen and Queen Dowager at Their Majesties Chappel at St James's November 1. 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis Monk of the Holy Order of S. Benedict and of the English Congregation Published by his Majesty's Command Quarto The Third Sermon Preach'd before the Kind and Queen in their Majesties Chappel at St. James's on the third Sunday in Advent Decemb. 13.1685 By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict and of the English Congr Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Published by His Majesties Command Quarto Sixth Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen in their Majesties Chappel at St. James's upon the first Wednesday in Lent Febr. 24.1685 By the Reverend Father Dom. Ph. Ellis Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict and of the English Congregation Publish'd by his Majesty's Command Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Matters of Controversie By the Right Reverend James Benigne Bossuet Counsellor to the King Bishop of Meaux formerly of Condom and Preceptor to the Dauphin First Almoner to the Dauphiness Done into English with all the former Approbations and others newly published in the Ninth and Last Edition of the French Published by His Majesties Command Quarto A Sermon preach'd before the King and Queen in Their Majesties Chappel at St. James's upon the Annunciation of our Blessed Lady March 25.1686 By Jo. Betham Doctor of Sorbon Published by His Majestics Command Quarto An Abstract of the Douay Catechism for the Use of Children and Ignorant People Now Revis'd and much amended Publish'd with Allowance Twentyfours A Pastoral Letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux to the New Catholies of His Diocess Exhorting them to keep their Easter and giving them neeessary Advertisements against the False Pastoral Letters of their Ministers With Reflections upon the Pretended Persecution Translated out of French and Publish'd with Allowance Quarto The Anser of the New Converts of France to a Pastoral Letter from a Protestant Minister Done out of French and Publish'd with Allowance Quarto The Ceremonies for the Healing of them that be Diseased with the Kings Evil used in the time of King Henry VII Published by His Majesties Command Quarto in Latin Twelves in English A Short Christian Doctrine Composed by the R. Father Robert Bellarmin of the Society of Jesus and Cardinal Published with Allowance Twelves ERRATA PAge 8. l. 15. dele to p. 10. l. 23. r. Are the men p. 22. l. 18. r. Misrepresentations p. 98. l. 14. r. Efforts p. 108. l. 31. r. is it not