contradict and clude this last and dreadful sentence than by correcting his errour to submit himself thereunto for he is not ashamed to say that the reason which Jesus Christ alledges and whereupon he grounds his judgment is not true and takes not place in the matter wherein he alledges it that is to say in the last Judgment It is not to purpose 1 Nec refert quod Dominus Matth. 25. formam judicii describens meminerit potius operum misericordiae quam aliorum Id enim fecit ut homines praesertim plebeios qui ad majora spiritualia parum sunt comparati in hec vita ad ea excitaret haec autem ratio cessat in extremo judicio quia tunc homines non erunt amplius ad optra misericordiae exciâ—tandi Lessim de perfect divin lib. 13. tract 22. pag. 142. saith he to alledge that our Lord in the 25. of S. Matthew representing unto us the form of the last Judgment speaks of the works of mercy rather than others For he doth it only to stir up men and especially the common people who are not capable of comprehending spiritual things to exercise these works in this life Now this reason cannot take place at the last Judgment because then there will be no need to excite men unto works of mercy I will not stay here to examine this excess which will appear strange enough of it self to them who are not void of the common resentments of Christianity because it will be more proper to do it elsewhere We will only observe in this place that one Jesuit hath undertaken to fight and destroy Gods first Commandment and another his last Judgment They who can have the patience to behold a multitude of Expositions of Scripture Councils and Holy Fathers false extravagant unheard of and many times impious need only read Poza's Book which he entituled Elucidarium Deiparae A Volume as big as his would be needful to represent all his excesses I have related some of them in the Chapter of Novelty and elsewhere which I repeat not here to avoid tediousness Father Adam hath surpassed all his Brethren in the same excess For he destroys not only the letter and the sense of Scripture he fights with the Authors themselves whom God hath made use of to impart them to us He decrys them and deprives them of all that authority and credit which is due unto sacred Writers and who were no other than the hand and tongue of the Holy Ghost by attributing unto them weaknesses and extravagancies and affirming by an horrible impiety that following their own imaginations and passions they are sometimes transported beyond truth and have written things otherwise than they were and that they did neither conceive nor believe them themselves in their consciences It will not easily be imagined that this conceit could ever come into the mind of a Monk I will not say but of a Christian who had not entirely renounced the Faith and Church if this Father had not written it in manifest terms and more forcibly than I can represent it in a Book whereto he gives this Title Calvin defeated by himself In the third Part of this Book Chap. 7. he saith That it is not only in criminal matters that zeal and hate inflame a Soul and transport it unto excest and violence but that the Saints themselves acknowledge that they are not exempt from this infirmity And flagrant passions sometimes push them on to actions so strange and ways of expressing themselves so far removed from truth that those who have written their lives have called them holy extravagancies innocent errours and Hyperboles more elevated than their apprehensions and which expressed more than they intended to say He adds also in the same Chapter and in the progress of the same discourse That this infirmity is not so criminal but that God did tolerate it in the person of those Authors whom he inspired and whom we call Canonical whom he left to the sway of their own judgments and the temper of their own spirits He compares the Saints and Fathers of the Church to persons full of passions and violence he excepts not the Canonical Authors themselves and he makes them all subject to the same infirmities and the Canonical Authors also to the greater and more inexcusable For if they be vicious in others they are yet more in these in whom the least faults and the least removes from the truth which in ordinary persons were but marks of infirmity would be as notorious and criminal as the greatest because they would be imputed unto God whose words the Canonical Authors have only rehearsed and it is as unworthy of God contrary to his nature and power to depart a little as much from the truth It is therefore manifest that what this Jesuit saith tends directly to destroy all Holy Scripture Faith and Religion For if the Canonical Writers could exceed and depart a little from the truth in one single point they were subject to do it in all the rest So their discourse is not of divine Authority neither are their Books the Books or Word of God because God is always equally infallible and can never go beyond or depart from the truth in the least whether he speaks himself or by the mouth of his Prophets CHAPTER II. Of the Commandments of God ARTICLE I. Of the first Commandment which is that of Love and Charity THis first Commandment of Love contains in it and requires of us three things to wit that we love God above all Creatures our selves for God and our neighbour as our selves These three coming from one and the same trunk and root shall make three Articles of this Chapter and I will handle all three severally that I may more distinctly represent the Jesuits opinions upon every obligation of the first Commandment and to make it evidently appear that they destroy it in every part I. POINT Of the Command to love God I will relate nothing here save only from Father Anthony Sirmond because he seems particularly to have undertaken to destroy this Precept and because he hath said upon this Subject alone all that may be found in the worst Books of his Fraternity 1. That he abolishes the Command of loving God and reduces it to a simple counsel 2. That according to him the Scripture hardly speaks at all of divine Love and Charity and that our Lord hath very little recommended it 3. That he declares that the love of God may very well consist and agree with the love of our selves 4. And that it is nothing else but self-love SECTION I. That there is no Command to love God according to the Maxims of the Jesuits Divinity OUr Lord speaking of the double Commandment of Love saith That all the Law and the Prophets do depend thereon In his duobus mandatis universa lex pendet Prophetae Matth. 22. He saith not that the command to love God doth depend on and is
statim confiteri Respondetur negative Ita Lugo num 150. est communis sententia quia Concllium solum loquitur de co qui ob urgentem necessitatem sine consessione celebrat Dicastill tract 4. de Euch. d. 9. d. 9. num 155. That it obligeth only Priests who have said Mass in some great and urgent necessity If then he say Mass being in mortal sin without necessity he shall not be obliged yea though he also did it maliciously he should not be obliged ex mera malitia And they find so little irreverence and so little evil in administring the Sacraments and offering Sacrifice in this manner that they even permit the Faithful to exact of them these Functions without any necessity although they also know that they are in an estate of sin 1 Licet cuicunque petere recipere Sacramentum Sicerdote existente in mortali etiam non Paroche nec parato allas ipsum conserre si perenti ea receprio futura sit commodior vel utillor quam si ab alio peteretur Idem tract 1. de Sacram. d. 3. d. 13. num 296. It is lawful for every one saith Dicastillus to demand and receive the Sacraments of a Priest who is in the estate of mortal sin though he be not his Parish-Priest nor be designed for it nor so much as disposed to administer them unto him if he find it more for his convenience and benefit than to demand it of others It is as casie a matter to receive the Sacraments as to administer them there is no more preparation for the one than for the other And if these Maxims were well grounded we might complain of the rigour and severity of the Jesuits seeing the Sacraments are not yet so frequented as they ought to be since in what estate soever we receive or give them there is so much to gain and nothing to lose THE SECOND PART OF THE SECOND BOOK Of the Outward Remedies of SIN That the Divinity of the Jesuits abolishes or corrupts them THE Physitian labours for his Patient when he prescribes what he ought to do as well as when he presents unto him what he ought to take for his Cure Whence it comes that they say commonly that he hath given him a good Remedy when he hath given him good advice how to remove the Disease whereof he is sick So that not only the things which he prescribes but the prescriptions themselves are remedies but with this difference that what he prescribes as Purges and Medicines are the inward remedies because they act upon the disease it self and have an internal vertue proper to destroy it when they are taken effectually but the prescriptions are as it were external remedies because they act not immediately upon the disease but only upon the mind of the discased by the knowledge they give him of his disease and of what he ought to do for his cure We must say the same thing holding the Rules of Proportion of our Souls diseases and remedies We have already observed that Grace Penance good Works and the Sacraments are the internal remedies of sin because they have a divine and internal vertue which the Spirit of God hath impressed upon them to expel sin from the Soul or to prevent its entrance thereinto And we say here that the holy Scripture the Commandments of God and those of the Church are the external remedies of the same sin because though they act not immediately upon sin they act upon the mind of the sinner and if they change not his will internally they touch his mind and conscience externally by the knowledge they give him of sin and by the fear which they impress upon him of the punishments with which God hath threatned those who commit them We have seen in the former Part of this second Book that the Jesuits destroy the internal remedies of sin we shall see here in this how they abolish or corrupt the external and so it will appear that they favour and cherish sin as much as they can This second Part shall have three Chapters The first shall be of the Corruption of Scripture The second of the Commandments of God And the third of the Commandments of the Church CHAPTER I. Of the Corruption of Scripture That the Jesuits corrupt the Scriptures divers ways THere are only three things to be considered in the holy Scripture the Letter the Sense and the Authority And accordingly we may distinguish three different manners of corrupting holy Scripture 1. In the Letter by adding taking away or changing something in the sacred Text. 2. In the Sense by false Expositions 3. In the Authority by debasing the Author and diminishing the belief that is due unto him Now let us see in what manner the Jesuits have corrupted and yet do every day corrupt the holy Scripture We might compose great Volumes of Passages which they have altered by false Interpretations yea may be of all places wherein Canonical Writers and Jesus Christ himself have spoken with any vehemence and vigour concerning the Holiness of our Mysteries the Duties of a Christian and the narrow way to Salvation we should be troubled to find one whereunto they have not given some blow haling them from their natural sense by Expositions false and contrary to the general Consent of the Fathers and Tradition of the Church that they might accommodate them to the relish and lusts of worldly men I will relate only some few to serve for Example S. Paul saith writing to the Corinthians 1 Si habutro omnem fidem Ita ut montes transferam charitatem autem non habuero nihil sum Et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas si tradidero corpus meum ita ut ardesm charitatem autem non habuero nihil mihi prodest 1 Cor. cap. 15. Though I had faith to remove mountains and had not charity I were nothing And though I should distribute all my goods to the relief of the poor and though I should give my body to be burnt if I had not charity it would avail me nothing But Father Celot being resolved to maintain the contrary saying that we may suffer Martyrdom profitably and do those other works whereof the Apostle speaks like a Christian without any motion from Charity to defend himself from this passage so strong and so manifest he corrupts and subverts it in this manner He saith that this must be extended to the habit and not to the act and motion of Charity meaning that the actions of which S. Paul speaks may be meritorious holy and perfect though they be done without love to God and though we never think of him provided we be in an estate of Grace So that he maintains that a man who is in the estate of Grace cannot act otherwise than by this Charity whereof the Apostle speaks See his words 2 Eo loco habitum charitatis postulari ab Apostolo aio ego 3
authorize vice and sin than to approve and tolerate all that which nourishes them and to abolish all that which is opposite to them and may destroy them 2. That the things which beget and nourish vice and sin are partly within man as corrupt seeds from whence proceed all the evil which he commits and partly without man as outward objects which beating upon his senses and his mind carry his will to consent unto evil and sin which abides and acts incessantly within him 3. That the things which are within man as the corrupt fountain from whence comes all the disorders and sins which he commits are lust ignorance and evil habits and hypocrisie or the secret malice of the heart covered with a veil of good intention and that the outward things which carry him on unto evil are the occasions of sin the objects which draw on the evil examples the evil customs which excite them and nourish them and above all humane Authority and humane Reason corrupted by sin which furnisheth Inventions for continuance in evil and in the occasions of evil wherein he is engaged and to justifie or excuse the most criminal actions by imaginary probabilities 4. That the things which destroy or expel sin are likewise of two sorts some as if it were internal and others external I call those internal which attract to and establish in the heart of man the Grace of God by which sin is destroyed such as are Faith Prayer Repentance good Works and a right use of the Sacraments I call these external which do from without represent sin unto a man whether it be by the knowledge which they give him of its malice of the hatred which God bears towards it of the punishments which he hath prepared for it in the other life and those with which he punisheth it sometimes even in this very life or which in any other like manner may give him an aversion from it and hinder him from committing it as are the Commandments of God those of the Church and generally all the holy Scriptures old and new which contain all the Promises which God hath made to good men and all the evils with which he doth threaten sinners There is no person I am confident who will not easily agree to these Truths and general Principles So that I have nothing to do but apply them to the particular Subject which I handle to acquit my self entirely of what I have undertaken to prove to wit that the Divinity of the Jesuits is as favourable to vice and sin as possibly it can be It suffices me for this purpose to make appear that it nourishes lust ignorance evil habits and the corruption of the will covered with a veil and pretence of a good intention That it entertains men in occasions of sin in evil customs in licences and abuses as well publick and common to all as peculiar to every Profession making use of humane and corrupt Reason for authorizing these disorders and to make them pass as good and indifferent and gives for a Rule of Christian life and the Foundation of eternal life not Faith and the Word of God but the Authority of Men and all the imaginations and thoughts which present themselves unto their minds provided they can render them probable and give them some colour and appearance of truth That it abolisheth or corrupts Repentance Prayers good Works the Sacraments the Commands of God of the Church and the Holy Scriptures That finally it introduceth and confirmeth corruption and loosness in all sorts of Professions Seculars and Ecclesiasticks attempting to justifie and excuse those vices and sins which are most opposite thereto and which are to them for all that most common as injustice in the Courts unfaithfulness in Traffick and other such like If I can justifie all these things I have all my design accomplished and I shall have shewed that the Jesuits Divinity favours and nourishes vice and sin as much as men can do and that they seem to be become thereof the Advocates and Professors Which I hope to do in this Writing with so much clearness that no person shalt be thereof unconvinced and with such perfect fidelity that those who are the least equitable because they are too scrupulous or too passionate shall have nothing to reproach me with on this Subject For I will do nothing else but report simply the Opinions of the Authors Jesuits as they have expressed themselves in their Books I will frequently add their proper Reasons and in the more important Points I shall sometimes ascend to the Principles from whence they draw their Conclusions I undertake not to refute their Errours but only to discover them and make them appear This is the cause why without engaging my self to produce the places of holy Scripture or of Tradition any more than the Reasons which may be alledged to refel them I content my self to consider and represent them in such sort that they may be understood what they are and many times I content my self to reherse them as they themselves express them when that is sufficient to raise an horrour against them When the malice is more concealed I endeavour to discover it and to make it evident by some Reflections or some Observations or by Examples and sensible Comparisons and if I make use of any Reasons I take them in a manner always from themselves or from Principles of Faith and natural Light which are altogether indubitable and so evident that to oppose them were to renounce common sense as well as Christian Piety and Religion I meddle not here with matters of Faith nor Mysteries of Religion where it was as easie to make appear that the Jesuits are no less transported than in the Maxims of Morality as will appear clearly by one Example out of the Chapter of Jesus Christ which I thought should be added to that of Grace There may be seen in what manner they speak of the Son of God of his Incarnation of his Humanity of his Divine Person and that they have thereof thoughts so base so unworthy so shameful that they are not more proper for any end than to expose our Mysteries to the scorn and contempt of Infidels and Libertines and to raise horrour and aversation in the Faithful themselves by their impious expressions and reasonings by which they profane Holiness it self and destroy the respect and veneration which ought to be given it I insist upon Moral matters only and even without design to contain them all I should need many Volumes only to make an Extract of that which may be found in their Books contrary to good Manners and to Christian Piety I intend only to collect some principal Propositions by which Judgment may be made of the rest I report them simply as they are in their Books And when I translate them I will set the passages on the Margent in Latine to the end that the fidelity and sincerity with which I recite them may appear
purity wherewith the Body of Jesus Christ ought to be received in the Communion he saith to prevent this objection 1 Qued si Sancti Patres vineaistur plus exigere incelligendi sunt vel in ordine ad utiliorem magis fructuosam sumptionem vel quoad c nsilium Ibid. num 165. That if the Holy Fathers seem to demand more we must take that which they say as a counsel or as an exhortation to communicate with more fruit and benefit There is nothing more easie than in this manner to defeat all Authorities and all the Ordinances of the Fathers and Councils There is nothing so formal in the Scripture it self which may not be cluded by this distinction making every thing pass for counsel which appears contrary to our sense and too rigorous to the flesh that so we may dispense therewith without scruple He relates amongst others the Council of Trent daring even to pretend that it is for him in this Point 2 Quia ex Scriptura Consiliis tantum colligitur debere eum qui communicat se probare Tridentiâ—um autem sess 13. docet hanc probationem in co consistere ut nullus sibi conscius peccati mortalis absque confessione ad Eucharistiam accedat Ibid. num 164. Because saith he we can collect no other thing from Scripture and from Councils than that he who communicates ought to try himself Now the Council of Trent sess 13. teacheth us that this proof consists in this that no person who believes himself guilty of mortal sin ought to approach unto the Eucharist without being confessed first of all It is indeed true that the Council demands this It ordaineth that they who perceive themselves guilty of any crime should purifie themselves from it by the Sacrament of Penance before they approach to the Communion but it declares beyond this that every man penitent or innocent ought to be informed of the dignity and holiness of this heavenly Sacrament and to take heed 3 Ne absque magna reverentia sanctitate ad percipiendum accedat Conc. Trid. sess 13. cap. 7. not to approach unto it to receive it without profound reverence and great holiness This is not to be in great holiness but simply without great evil to be exempt only from mortal sin and none can say that this is to have a profound reverence for Jesus Christ to offend him voluntarily in receiving And yet though the Council forbids to communicate without very great holiness and profound reverence Filliutius ceases not to pretend that we may communicate worthily in committing venial sins whilst we do communicate and persisting in them voluntarily And to remove all scruple from them who are fallen into crimes and yet have a defire to communicate he puts this question 4 Quaero quanto temporis spatio tenetur communicnem differre qui peccavit mortaliter Ibid. tract 4. cap. 8. n. 214. pag. 94. For how long time ought he to forbear to communicate who hath sinned mortally His answer is 5 Respondco eum qui contritus est confessus posse per se communicare etiamsi praecedente necte vel aliquo spatio ante mortaliter peccaverit Ibid. That he who hath remorse for his sins and who hath confessed them may absolutely communicate though the very night before or even a little before the Communion he have sinned mortally He demands no other interval between the crime and the Communion than that which is necessary unto Confession into whatsoever disorders and abominations we be plunged before pretending that we may pass in an instant from the most enormous sins to the Altar and participation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ that is to say from Hell into Paradise and from the estate of a Devil to that of an Angel since he that eats the bread of Angels ought to participate of the estate and purity of Angels He must be both a bad Divine that holds Maxims so opposite to the judgment and perpetual discipline of the Church and a bad Philosopher who imagines that the spirit of a man can so easily pass in an instant from the most violent deordination of passions to the peace and purity of contrary vertues and he must also be a far worse Christian to be so little touched with respect and love to Jesus Christ and his neighbour as to expose the one so rashly to so great contempt and so unworthy usage and the other to so visible a ruine and damnation And if he be not absolutely impious and a Libertine who holds an opinion so horrible he must be at the least more bold and impudent than the impious and Libertines themselves who without doubt dare not maintain publickly what this Jesuit maintains and have not the confidence at any time to talk thus before considerable persons who have any sense of piety but that they know these discourses are found amongst the Books of the Jesuits Mascarenhas proposes the same case with Filliutius but with much greater extent and confidence and clearing of all the difficulties which may arise from his resolution 1 Qui habuit voluntariam mortaliter pâ—ccaminosam pollutionem sive cum complice five sine illo si habeat debitum illum dolorem praemissa confessione poterit in eadem die communicare Mascarenhas tr 4. de Sacr. Euchar. disp 5 cap. 7. pag. 239. He saith he who is fallen into voluntary and mortal pollution be it that he have committed this crime all alone or with some other may communicate the same day confessing himself first of all with necessary grief That is to say with a sorrow natural or supernatural true or held for true though it be not the one or the other being sufficient with the Sacrament according to this Divine as we have made appear when we spoke of Penance and Confession and he holds himself so well assured in his answer that he doubts not but that a man may with this disposition alone communicate worthily 2 Torn difficultas est utrum Confessatius debeat consulere his sic voluntariè mortaliter pollutis util o deà c mmunione se abstineant non ex praecepto quod ut dictum est nullum datur sed ex consilio propter reverentiam debitam tanto Sacramento Ibid. All the difficulty in this case saith he is to know if the Confessor ought to counsel these persons that are thus fallen into mortal and voluntary pollution to abstain from communicating the same day not because of the Precept because there is none that forbids it as we have now shown but by way of advice because of that reverence which is due unto so great a Sacrament He acknowledges 3 Ordinariè respondent authores affirmativè nihilominus tamen mihi magis placet opinio Joannis Sancil in suis selectis disp 23. n. 30. afferentis hoc non esse consulendum imo potius consulendum quod communicent dummodo sint per
Scripture Fathers Popes condemn the disobedience of these Children in terms capable to terrifie the most resolute and to ashame the most impudent He answers that this proves indeed that it is very commendable for Children to do otherwise but not that they sin mortally if they fail therein 3 Difficultas ergo sola superest an cum indignis possint filii licite contraâ—cre patre vel genitrice diffentientibus Et quidem l'cet aliquibus videatur non posse idque sub mortali quod certe valde probabile est ..... fattor tamen probabile item esse ac tutum quod possint ..... Et recte docet Sanchez filiam adeo liberam esse ut ante vigesimum quintum annum nubere valeat etiam indigno sine patris consensu Tambur decal lib. 5. cap. 2. sect 3. num 5. Vocavit itaque Jacob Isaac benedixit eum praecipitque ei dicens Noli accipere conjugem de genere Ghanaam Genes 28. Though the Pope Evaristus saith he have ordained that a daughter should not be held for a married wife if her father himself agreed not to the Marriage Though the Pope S. Leo and S. Ambrose say that it is not becoming the modesty of a Virgin to chuse an Husband but that she ought to attend on her Fathers judgment Though in the holy Scriptures this charge be laid upon Fathers Though S. Paul teach expresly that daughters ought to be given in marriage by their fathers Though many Examples of the Saints shew this manifestly I answer with Sanchez that these things and such like prove well that it is very commendable for them to demand their fathers advice but not that they in not doing so fall into the horrible disorder of mortal sin 4 Si statuit Evaristus Papa ut pronupta nequaquam habeatur puella quam pater ipse non desponsat si Leo Pontisex Ambrosius aiunt non esse virginalis pudoris maritum eligere sed judicium parentum esse expectandum si in sacris Sâ—riptutis parentibus tribuitur hoc munus si S. Paulus expresse docet à parentibus tradendas esse filias nuptui si multa Sanctarum Scriprurarum exemplaid manifeste demonstrant Respondeo cum codem Sanchez haec similia probare quod esset valde honestum ejusmodi consilium à patre exquirere diram peccati mortalis necessitatem non probare Tambur lib. 5. dâ—…al cap. 9. sect 3. num 6. This discourse is proper for nothing but to countenance disobedience and impudence in Children and to favour Rapes and clandestine Marriages and this is very insolently and Jesuitically to clude the holy Scripture the Authority of the Church Councils and Fathers and the Examples of the Saints by taking only for simple exhortations and counsels of Decency and Civility what they ordain under so great penalties saying such Marriage should be null and that a daughter should not be held for a married wife if her father himself agreed not to her Marriage See here another case wherein the liberty of Children that is their licentiousness is sufficiently established 1 Filius in ludo illicito non est subditus patri atque adeo lucrum ex illo habitum absque controversia sibi adquiâ—ere noâ—at Rebellius Tambur lib. 5. decal cap. 4. sect 1. num 7. A Son saith the same Author is not subject to his Father in what concerns unlawful games and by consequence he may without wronging him retain unto himself the gain he makes thereby He will have it that because a Son commits two sins one in playing at an unlawful game and the other in gaming contrary to his Fathers prohibition that which he hath gained is therefore justly acquired to his own use If he had not been disobedient in gaming contrary to his Fathers will he had had nothing of that he gained but because he was disobedient that which he hath gained appertains to himself though he have contemned his Father and plaid only with his money So he receives benefit not only of the money which is his Fathers but of his contempt of his Father also and this contempt gives him a right which he could not have had if he had not abused both his Father and his money So marvellous and gainful too is the Divinity of these Doctors Finally Tambourin speaking of the temporal assistance which Children owe unto their Father shews us how far this obligation may go He proposes the case of a Father taken by Thieves who threaten to kill him if a certain sum of money be not given them he demands whether the Son were obliged to give this money 2 Quod si iste paâ—… in sâ—mili â—…ae discrimiâ—e â—…saretur pecuniaque à divite filio exposceretur difficilior est resâ—…urâ—o Equidem hac uterer distinctione Si ea summa demi potest ex supeâ—fluis vel solum statui convenientibus obligarem patrem filiumque si debeat demi ex necessariis ita ut vel omnino depauperandi vel admodum notabiliter à suo statu dimovendi effent neuâ—rum obligatem ...... Et nihilomi nus priorem dicti partem non ranquam omnino certam affirmo Tambur lib. 5. decal o. 1. sect 1. num 11. If a father saith he be in peril of his life and money be demanded to save him of his Son who is rich the question is more difficult As for me I would make use of this distinction If the sum demanded may be taken out of goods superfluous or only becoming the condition of the Son I would oblige him to give it But if it ought to be taken out of what is necessary unto him in such sort that it would wholly impoverish him or cause him to fall notably below his condition I would not oblige him at all ..... Notwithstanding I say not that it is altogether certain that this Son is obliged to give on this occasion such goods as are superfluous or convenient for his condition Behold a decision very favourable to those Children of whom he spoke before who innocently desired the death of their Fathers He would be far enough from obliging a Son to expose his life to save his Fathers since he would not that he should be obliged so far only as to give for it a part of his goods which he may absolutely spare And if you represent unto him that which our Saviour recommends unto us to love one another as he loved us and what S. John saith that we ought to lay down our life for our Brethren and by stronger reason for our Fathers and Mothers I see not what he can answer but what he hath already said before cluding the Authority of the Scripture and the Saints that these Commands though so express repeated and solemnly confirmed by the whole Church are wholesom advices and counsels of Decency and Civility which oblige no farther than we please to follow them ARTICLE IV. Of the Command of God THOU SHALT NOT KILL That