our first fruits to pray with us and for us to our common Master in the name of our common Mediator The same Council explicates clearly and in few words what is the intention of the Church when she offers up to God the dreadful sacrifice to honour the memory of his Saints This honour which we render them in Sacrificing consists in naming them in the prayers we offer up to God as his faithful servants and in rendring him thanks for the victories which they have gained and in humbly beseeching him that he would vouchsafe to favour us by their intercession St. Augustin has told us twelve hundred years ago 8. de Civ c. 27. that we ought not to think any sacrifices were offered to the Holy Martyrs altho' the practice of the universal Church in that time was to offer Sacrifice upon their holy bodies and at their Memories that is to say before those places where their pretious reliques were conserved This Father has moreover added Tract 84. in Joh. Serm. 17 in verb. Apost that they made a commemoration of the Martyrs at the Holy Altar in the Celebration of the Sacrifice not to pray for them as they do for other persons who are dead but rather that they might pray for us I relate the sentiments of this Holy Bishop because the Council of Trent makes use of his very words almost to teach the Faithful that the Church does not offer Sacrifice to the Saint Conc. Trid. Sess 22. c. 3. but to God alone who has crowned them that the Priest also does not address himself to St. Peter and St. Paul saying I OFFER UP TO YOU THIS SACRIFICE but rendring thanks to God for their victories he demands their assistance to the end those whose memory we celebrate upon earth would vouchsafe to pray for us in Heaven It is after this manner we honour the Saints that we may obtain the Graces of God by their Intercession and the Principal of those Graces we hope to obtain is that of imitating them to which we are excited by the consideration of their admirable Examples and by the honour which we render in the presence of God to their happy memories Those who will rightly consider the Doctrine we have proposed will be obliged to grant us that as we do not rob God of any of those perfections peculiar to his infinite essence so we do not attribute to Creatures any of those qualities or operations proper to God alone which distinguisheth us so fully from Idolaters we cannot comprehend why that Title should be given us And when these Gentlemen of the pretended Reformation object to us that by addressing our Prayers to the Saints and honouring them all the world over as present we attribute to them a certain kind of Immensity or at least the knowledg of the Secrets of hearts which God has nevertheless reserved to himself as it appeares by so many testimonies of Scripture they do not sufficiently reflect upon our doctrine For in fine without examining what grounds may be had to attribute to the Saints some certain degree of knowledg as to those things which are acted amongst us or also of our secret thoughts it is manifest that to say a Creature may have the knowledge of these things by a light communicated to him by God is not to elevate a creature above his condition The Example of the Prophets justify this clearly God having not disdained to discover future things to them tho they appear much more particularly reserved to his own knowledg Moreover never any Catholic yet thought the Saints knew our necessities by their own Power no nor the desires which move us to address our secret Prayers to them The Church contents herself to teach with all antiquity these Prayers to be very profitable to such who make them whether it be the Saints know them by the ministry and communication of Angels who according to the testimony of Scripture know what passes amongst us being established by Gods order as administring Spirits to cooperate with us in the work of our Salvation whether it be that God himself makes known to them our desires by a particular Revelation or lastly whether it be that he discovers the secret to them in his divine Essence in which all truth is comprised So that the Church has not decided any thing about these different methods which God might be pleased to make use of for that end But let these means be what they will it is always certain the Church does not attribute to the Creature any of the divine perfections as the Idolaters did seeing she permits us not to acknowledge even in the greatest Saints any degree of Excellency which does not proceed from God nor any acceptableness in his sight but by their vertues nor any vertue which is not a gift of his Grace nor any knowledge of human affairs but what is communicated to them nor any power to assist us but by their prayers nor in fine any felicity but by a submission and a perfect conformity to his divine will It is therefore true that by examining what are our interiour sentiments concerning the Saints it will be found we do not raise them above the condition of Creatures and from thence one ought to judge of what nature that exteriour honour is which we render them exteriour veneration being established to testify the interiour sentiments of the mind But because this honour which the Church renders to the Saints appears principally before their Images and holy Reliques it will be proper to explicate her belief concerning them SECT V. Images and Reliques AS for Images Conc. Trid. Sess 25. Dec. de Invoc c. the Council of Trent forbids us expresly to believe any divinity or vertue in them for which they ought to be reverenced to demand any favour of them or to put any trust in them and ordains that all the honour which is given to them should be referred to the Saints themselves which are represented by them All these words of the Council are like so many characters to distinguish us from Idolaters seeing we are so far from believing with them any divinity annexed to the Images that we do not attribute to them any other vertue but that of exciting in us the remembrance of those they represent Upon this it is the honour we render Images is grounded No man for example can deny but that when we look upon the figure of JESVS CHRIST crucified it excites in us a more lively remembrance of him who loved us so as to deliver himself up to death for us While this Image being present before our eyes Gal. 2. causes so pretious a remembrance in our souls we are moved to testify by some exteriour signs how far our gratitude bears us and by humbling our selves before the Image we show what is our submission to our Saviour So that to speak precisely and according to the Ecclesiastical Stile when we honour the
not annexed to the sensible species but to the proper substance of his flesh which is living and life-giving because of the Divinity which is united to it Upon which account all those who believe the real presence ought not to have any difficulty to communicate under one sole species because they there receive all that is essential to this Sacrament together with a plenitude so secure because there being now no real seperation betwixt the Body and the Blood as hath been said we receive entirely and without division him who is solely capable to satiate us This is the solid foundation upon which the Church interpreting the precept of Communion as declared we may receive the Sanctification which this Sacrament carries with it under one sole species and if she have reduced her Children to this sole species it was not out of disesteem of the other seeing on the contrary she did it to hinder those Irreverences which the confusion and negligence of people had occasioned in these later ages reserving to her self the re-establishment of communion under both kinds according as it should become more advantagious to Peace and Unity Catholic Divines have made it appear to those of the pretended Reformation that they have themselves made use of several such like Interpretations in what belongs to the use of the Sacrament but above all they had reason to remark this which is taken out of the 12 chap. of their discipline Title of the Lords Supper art 7. where we find these words The Bread of the Lords Supper ought to be administred to those who cannot drink wine upon their making protestation that it is not out of contempt and endeavouring what they can possibly to obviate all Scandal even by approaching the cup as neer their mouths as they are able They have judged by this regulation that both species were not by the institution of JESVS CHRIST essential to the Communion otherwise they ought to have absolutely refused the Sacrament to those who could not receive it whole and entire and not to give it them after a manner contrary to that which JESVS CHRIST had commanded in which case their disability would have been their excuse But our adversaries conceived it would be an excessive rigour not to allow at least one of the species to those who could not receive the other and as this condescendence has no ground in Scripture they must acknowledge with us the words by which JESVS CHRIST proposes to us the two species are liable to some interpretation and that this interpretation ought to be declared by the authority of the Church But it might seem as if this article of their discipline which was made in the Synod of Poitiers held in the year 1560 had been reformed by the Synod of Vertueil held in the year 1567. where it is said the company is not of opinion the bread should be administred to those who would not receive the Cup. These two Synods nevertheless are no ways opposite That of Vertueil speaks only of those who will not receive the Cup And that of Poitiers of these only who cannot In effect notwithstanding the Synod of Vertueil this article remains in their discipline and has been also approved by a latter Synod then that of Vertueil by the Synod of la Rochell in 1571 where this article was review'd and put into that stare in which it now is But supposing the Synods of the pretended reform'd Religion had differed in their sentiments it would only follow that the matter in question regards not Faith and that it is of the number of those which are at the Churches disposal according to their own Principles SECT XVIII The written and unwritten Word THERE remains nothing more now but to explicate what Catholics believe touching the Word of God and the Authority of the Church JESVS CHRIST having laid the Foundation of his Church by Preaching the unwritten Word was the first Rule of Christianity and when the Writings of the New Testament were added this unwritten Word did not upon that account lose its Authority which makes us reiceive with equal veneration all that was ever taught by the Apostles whether by Writing or byword of Mouth as St. Paul himself has expresly declared And it is a most certain sign 2 Thes 2.14 a Doctrine comes from the Apostles when it is universally embraced by all Christian Churches without any possibility of shewing its beginning We cannot chuse but receive all that is established after this manner with the submission due to Divine Authority and we are persuaded those of the Pretended Reformation who are not obstinate are in the bottom of their Hearts of the same Opinion it being impossible to believe a Doctrine received from the beginning of the Church can flow from any other source than that of the Apostles Wherefore our Adversaries ought not to wonder if we who are careful to gather together all our Fathers have left us should conserve the Depositum of Tradition as well as that of the Scriptures SECT XIX The Authority of the Church THE Church being established by God to be the Guardian of Scripture and Tradition we receive the Canonical Scriptures from her and let our Adversaries say what they will we doubt not but it is her Authority which principally determines them to reverence as Divine Books the Canticle of Canticles which has so few visible marks of a Prophetical Inspiration the Epistle of St. James which Luther rejected and that of St. Jude which might appear suspected because of some Apocriphal Books cited in it In fine it can only be from this Authority they receive the whole Body of Scripture which all Christians accept as Divine before their reading of it has made them sensible of the Spirit of God in it Being then inseparably bound as we are to the Holy Authority of the Church by means of the Scriptures which we receive from her Hands we learn Tradition also from her and by the means of Tradition we learn the true sence of Scripture Upon which account the Church professes she tells us nothing from her self and that she invents nothing new in her Doctrine she does nothing but declare the Divine Revelation by the interiour direction of the Holy Ghost who is given to her as her teacher That Dispute which was raised in the very time of the Apostles upon account of the Ceremonies of the Law shews clearly that the Holy Ghost explicates himself by the Church and their Acts have by the method by which that first Contest was decided taught all succeeding Ages by what Authority all other differences are to be ended So that as often as there shall happen any Disputes to cause a Division amongst the Faithful the Church will interpose her Authority and her Pastors assembled will say after the Apostles Act. 15.28 It his seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us And when she has spoken her Children will be taught they ought not to begin
by Faith present upon this Holy Table together with these Signs of Death we unite our selves to him in this Estate we present him to God as our only Victim and our sole Propitiator by his Blood confessing we have nothing to offer up to God but JESVS CHRIST and the infinite Merit of his Death We consecrate all our Prayers by this Holy Oblation and in presenting JESVS CHRIST to God we learn at the same time to offer up our selves to the Divine Majesty in him and by him as living Sacrifices This is the Sacrifice of Christians infinitely different from what was offered up in the Old Law a Spiritual Sacrifice becoming the New Covenant in which the presence of the Victim is only perceived by Faith in which the Word of God is the Spiritual Sword which makes a Mystical separation betwixt the Body and the Blood in which by consequence the Blood is only shed Mystically and in which Death only intervenes by representation and yet however a most real Sacrifice in as much as JESVS CHRIST is there truly contained and presented to his Father under this Figure of Death But a Commemorative Sacrifice which is so far from taking away our adhesion to the Sacrifice of the Cross as it is objected to us on the contrary it fixes us the firmer to it by all its circumstances seeing it has not only an entire relation to it but in reality has neither being nor subsistence but by this relation from whence it deriveth all the Vertue contained in it This is the express Doctrine of the Catholic Church in the Council of Trent which teaches that this Sacrifice is instituted only to represent that which was once accomplished upon the Cross Sess 22. c. 1. to perpetuate the memory of it to the end of the World and to apply to us the saving Vertue of it for the remission of those sins which we commit every day So that the Church is so far from believing that something wants to perfect the Sacrifice of the Cross on the contrary she thinks it so perfect and so fully sufficient as what is added is only instituted to celebrate the memory and apply its Vertue By which the same Church acknowledges that all the merit of the Redemption of Mankind depends upon the Death of the Son of God and it ought to be understood from all we have already expounded that when we say to God in the Celebration of the Divine Mystery We offer unto you this Holy Host we pretend not by this Oblation to make or present to God a new payment of the price of our Salvation but to offer up to him in our behalfs the Merits of our Blessed JESVS there present and the infinite price which he once paid for us upon the Cross The Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion do not think they offend JESVS CHRIST by offering him to God as present to their Faith and if they believed him to be really there what repugnance could they have to offer him up as truly present So that the whole dispute ought indeed to be reduced to the real presence alone From hence forwards all those false Ideas which these Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion form to themselves of the Sacrifice which we offer ought to be effaced They ought freely to acknowledge Catholics pretend not to make a new propitiation to appease God anew as if he had not been sufficiently satisfied by the Sacrifice of the Cross or to make some addition to the Price of our Salvation as if it were imperfect All these things have no place in our Doctrine because all that is here done is intended by way of Intercession and Application after the manner which we have now explicated SECT XV. The Epistle to the Hebrews AFter this Explication those mighty Objections drawn from the Epistle to the Hebrews and so much enforced against us will appear to have little reason in them and it is in vain our Adversaries strive to prove from the sentiments of the Apostle that we annul the Sacrifice of the Cross But because the best way to prove that two Doctrines are not opposite to one another is to shew by explicating them that no proposition of the one is contrary to any of the propositions of the other I think I am bound in this place to propose in short the Doctrine of this Epistle The Apostle intends in this Epistle to teach us that a sinnner could not avoid Death but by substituting some one in his place to die for him that whilst Men substituted only Beasts to be killed in their places their Sacrifices operated nothing but a publick acknowledgment of their having deserved Death and that seeing the Divine Justice could not be satisfied by so unequal an exchange they begun again every day to slay new Victims which was a certain mark of the insufficiency of that substitution But that since JESVS CHRIST had vouchsafed to die for Sinners God being satisfied by a Person substituting of himself so condignly sufficient and nothing more to exact for the price of our Redemption From whence the Apostle concludes we ought not only to offer up no more Victims after JESVS CHRIST but that JESVS CHRIST himself ought to be but once offered up to Death for us Let the Reader then who is solicitous for his Souls Salvation and a lover of Truth reflect a little upon what we have said concerning the manner how JESVS CHRIST offers up himself to God for us in the Eucharist I am certain he will not find any Proposition contrary to those which I have here related from the Apostle or which weakens his Argument so that nothing can be objected to us but his silence upon this point But those who would but consider the wise distribution which God makes of his secrets in the several Books of Scripture would not oblige us to receive from the sole Epistle to the Hebrews all our instructions concerning a matter which was not necessary to the Subject of that Epistle seeing the Apostle intends to explicate in it the perfection of the Sacrifice of the Cross and not the different manners which God has instituted to apply it to us And to remove all equivocation if we take the word Offer in the sence it is made use of in this Epistle as implying the actual Death of the Victim we will publickly confess that JESVS CHRIST is now no more offered up neither in the Eucharist nor any where else But because this word has a larger signification in other places of Scripture where it is often said We offer up to God what we present before him the Church which forms her Language and her Doctrine not from the sole Epistle to the Hebrews but from the whole Body of the Holy Scripture is not afraid to say that JESVS CHRIST offers up himself to God whereever he appears before his Face upon our behalf and that by consequence he offers up himself in the Eucharist according to
again to examine those Articles once so resolved on but are bound humbly to receive her Decisions In this we shall follow the example of St. Paul and Silas who carried this first Sentence of the Apostles to the Faithful and were so far from permitting a new Discussion of what had been decided that on the contrary They went from place to place Acts 16.4 teaching them to observe the Ordinances of the Apostles Thus it is the Children of God acquiess in the Judgment of the Church believing that from her Mouth they hear the Oracle of the Holy Ghost and upon account of this belief it is that after having said in our Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost we add immediately The Holy Catholic Church by which we oblige our selves to acknowledg an infallible and perpetual verity in the universal Church because this very Church which we believe existent in all Ages would cease to be the Church if she ceased to teach the truth revealed by God So that those who apprehend least she should abuse her Power to establish a Lye have no Faith in him by whom she is governed And if our Adversaries would but look upon these things in a more mild and candid manner they would be obliged to acknowledg the Catholic Church is so far from making her self Mistress of her Faith as they have accused her that on the contrary she has done what she could to bind and deprive herself of all the means of Innovation seeing she not only submits herself to the Holy Scriptures but to the end she might for ever banish all arbitrary Interpretations which make Mens Imaginations pass for Scripture she has obliged herself to interpret them in what relates to Faith and Manners Conc. Trid. Sess 14. according to the sence of the Holy Fathers from which she prosesseth never to depart declaring in all her Councils and in all the Professions of Faith she has published that she does not receive any Doctrine which is not conformable to the Tradition of all preceding Ages Moreover if our Adversaries consult their Consciences they will find the name of the Church has more Authority over them than they dare avouch in their disputes and I do not think there is any one Prudent Man amongst them who finding himself the only Person of a Perswasion tho it appeared to him never so Evident but would abhor that Singularity so true it is that Men have need in these matters to be supported in their Tenets by the Authority of some Society that is of the same opinion with them And for this reason God who created us and who knows what is most proper for us hath ordained for our Good that all Particulars should be subject to the Authority of his Church which of all other Authorities is without doubt the best Established In effect it is established not only by that Testimony which God himself gives of it in the Holy Scriptures but also by the marks of his divine Protection which are no less visible in the inviolable and perpetual subsistence of it than in its miraculous Establishment SECT XX. The Sentiments of those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion concerning the Authority of the Church THIS Supream Authority of the Church is so necessary to regulate the differences which arise in matters of Faith and about the Sense of Scripture that our Adversaries themselves after having decryed it as an unsupportable Tyranny have been at last obliged to establish it amongst themselves When those who are called Independents declared openly that each one of the Faithful ought to follow the light of his own Conscience without submitting his Judgment to the Authority of any Body or Ecclesiastical Assembly and upon this Ground refused to submit toany Synods That of Charenton held 1644. censured this Doctrine upon the same Reasons and for the same Inconveniencies for which we reject it This Synod observes in the first place that this Error of the Independents consists in this that they teach Every Church ought to be governed by her proper Laws without a dependance upon any Person in Ecclesiastical Matters and without any Obligation to acknowledg the Authority of Conferences and Synods for her regulation and conduct After which this Synod determines that this Sect is a prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and Extravagancies that it takes away all the means of applying any remedy to it and that if it took place there might be as many Religions framed as Parishes or particular Assemblies These last words shew it is principally in matters of Faith this Synod would establish a Dependance seeing the greatest Inconvenience into which it observes the faithful would fall by an Independence is that there might chance to be as many Religions formed as Parishes Every Church then according to the Doctrine of this Synod and much more every private Person must necessarily depend in what concerns matters of Faith upon some other superior Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some Body to which Authority all the Faithful submit their Judgments For the Independents do not refuse to submit to the Word of God according as they think it ought to be understood nor to accept the decisions of Synods when after having examined them they judg them reasonable What they refuse to do is to submit their Judgments to that of any Assembly for its sake because our Adversaries have taught them that every Assembly even that of the Universal Church is a Society of men subject to Error and to which by consequence a Christian ought not to submit his Judgment that submission being only due to God From this pretention of the Independents it is those inconveniences follow which the Synod of Charenton so well observed For let a man make what Profession he pleaseth to submit himself to the word of God if every one think he has a right to interpret it according to his own Sense and against the Tenets of the Church declared in her last Sentence this pretention will open a door to all sorts of Extravagancies it will take away all the means of applying a remedy because the decision of the Church is not a remedy to those who think themselves not obliged to submit to it in fine it gives way to the framing as many Religions not only as there are Parishes but also as there are Persons To avoid these inconveniencies from whence the ruin of Christianity would follow the Synod of Charenton finds her self obliged to establish a Dependence in Ecclesiastical matters and that even in Points of Faith but this dependence will never hinder those pernicious consequences which they desired to prevent if they do not with us establish this Maxim that every particular Church and much more every particular person amongst the faithful ought to believe themselves obliged to submit their private judgment to the Authority of the Church Thus we see in the 5th chapter of
RAIMUNDUS CAPISUCCHI Master of the Sacred Palace to the Author AFter having admired with all others so sublime a desert as yours I must also shew the particular Inclination I have to serve you occasioned by that excellent and learned Work you have composed for the defence of the Catholic Faith and which has been lately translated into Italian for it 's farther spreading I am indebted to you an infinite acknowledgment for having afforded me an occasion of rendring you some Service we are all of us here in great expectation of the publishing of this excellent piece that we may enjoy the fruits of your Labours No body will have a greater satisfaction than my self who do and shall always feel an ardent desire to render my self worthy of the honour of your Commands I end with assuring you of my Respects Rome 20 June 1675. The Approbations of the Roman Edition Anno 1678. The Approbation of Signor MICHEL ANGELO RICCI Secretary to the Congregation of I. and H. R. and Consultor of the Holy Office VVHAT the Council of Trent has with great care performed in making an entire separation betwixt Articles of Faith opinions and disputes of the Schools and explicating the same Doctrines of Faith in more clear and significant Terms what Tertullian had formerly done in condemning the secession of Heretics from the Church by several Prescriptions what others have practised whilst they ingenuously combated Heretics by their own Principles and Rules the same has the Right Reverend James Benign Bossuet Bishop of Condom performed in this Work in a clear and short Method proper to perswade manifesting to us the admirable parts of the Author Which work being now for the convenience of the Italians elegantly translated out of French into our Mother Language I esteem worthy to be Printed and Published Rome August the 5th 1678. The Approbation of the Reverend Father LAURENCE BRANCATI DE LAUERA of the Congregat Consist of I. Rites Visit Consultor and Qualificator of the Holy Office and Bibliothecarian of the Vatican Library c. I Esteem most worthy publishing the little Treatise or Discourse Printed in French and several other Languages and at present Translated out of French into Italian in which the most Illustrious James Benign Bossuet Bishop and Lord of Condom does forceably combat in a Noble Grave and Solid Stile the Ministers of the Pretended Reform'd Religion and their followers as well by the common and fundamental Rules of the Church as by their own Principles showing that it is not Catholics as those Ministers imagine but the Ministers themselves who by drawing unnatural Consequences have receded from those Tenets which are common to them and us and by taking the Scriptures and Councils in a wrong sense have separated themselves from the Catholic Church But if they would examin without passion the Rules of Catholics grounded upon their Councils and especially upon that of Trent they would without doubt by the Grace of God return again to a Holy Unity all which this Author shows them in a most pleasing and no less convincing manner running through all the points of Controversie Given in the Convent of the Twelve Apostles at Rome the 25. July 1678. F. Laurentius de Laurea Min. Conventualis The Approbation of the Abbot Stephen Gradi I Have with diligence and application read the excellent Work of the Lord James Benign Bossuet Bishop of Condom faithfully and elegantly Translated into Italian where the Doctrine of the Church is explicated after a manner both concise clear and full And it wrought the same Impression in me which ordinarily those nobler sort of Writings which are the products of a sound Doctrine and solid Reason do in their Readers when they are convinc'd they could not have said any thing more to the purpose nor spoken otherwise if they had undertaken to write of the same Subject But what Transported me the most was that Wisdom and Moderation of the Author in the choice of those things which he asserts he retrenches all those things which serve only to lengthen Disputes and render a good Cause odious and betakes himself to Truth alone as to a strong hold which he renders not only secure but inaccessable applying himself wholly to establish the true state of the Question which by that means is rendred clear and easie to be judged of Upon which account all those if they will believe me who are concerned for the Peace of the Church or the Salvation of their Souls ought day and night to turn over this Book and it is impossible but it should produce in them both shame and sorrow for holding Tenets contrary to the Orthodox Faith I am of this Opinion St. G. Consultor of the Congregation de l' Indice Prefect of the Vatican Library Let it be Printed if it so please the Very Reverend Father Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace J. de Angelis Archiep. Vrb Vicesger Let it be Printed F. Raimundus Capisuccus Ord. Pred S. P. A. Magister The Brief of our Holy Father Pope Innocent the XI VEnerable Brother Health and Apostolical Benediction Your Book of the Exposition of the Catholic Faith lately presented to us contains such Doctrine and is composed in such a method and with so much prudence that it is thereby rendred proper to instruct the Readers clearly in few words and to extort even from the unwilling a Confession of the Catholic Faith For which reasons we do not only think it worthy our commendation but also to be read and esteem'd by all We hope this Work by the Grace of God will bring forth much Fruit and will not a little help to propagate the Orthodox Faith which is our continual care and principal sollicitude And in the interim we are more and more confirmed in that good Opinion we have always had of your Vertue and Piety and we feel an increase of those hopes which we had long since formed in our selves of the Education of the Dauphin of France and that he who is intrusted to your care and endowed with inclinations worthy the King his Father and all his Ancestors will receive from you those instructions which are proper to the Son of a most Christian King whose Birth entitles him both to so flourishing a Kingdom and at the same time to be a Protector of the Catholic Religion And this King who has chosen you amongst so many great men with which France flourishes at this time to so great a Province as is the laying the Foundations of a public happiness will no doubt receive an Eternal Glory from the good success of your care according to that Oracle of Scripture which tells us that a Wise Son is the Glory of his Father Continue then to go forwards chearfully in so important a work especially since you have before your Eyes such mighty Fruits of your Industry For we hear and that from all Parts and we cannot but feel an excess of Joy and Consolation amidst our many Troubles when we hear how this young Prince is carried on to vertue with a noble Fervour and daily gives new Testimonies of Prudence and of Piety This we can assure you that nothing is capable of endearing our Paternal affection to you more than thus to employ your utmost Care to inspire into this young Kings Mind those Maxims which make a mighty King that in a riper Age being happy and victorious like the King his Father he may regulate by Holy Laws and reduce to Christian Manners Barbarous Nations and Enemies of the Name of Christian as we hope to see them shortly subdu'd to the Empire of this great King since Peace being restored to Europe he has so fair an opportunity to transfer his victorious Arms into the East To conclude Assure your self that the Submission and Kespect which your Letters show you to have towards the Apostolic See and Us who now possess it tho unworthy for the Government of the Catholic Church find in Us a mutual affection the Testimonies of which you shall perceive when any occasion shall present it self With a sincere affection we give you our Apostolic Benediction Given at Rome at St. Peters under the Fishers Ring the 4th of January 1679. the third year of our Popedom Signed Marius Spinula and on the outside To our Venerable Brother James Bishop of Condom FINIS