fair dealing but at this day things are very much altered the first Method hath not been found significant therefore the second is now taken up yet have they not universally renounced the former Italy Spain and most part of Germany and even of France either know not or relish not these Sweetnings Those that are grown old in the old Opinions do also respect the ancient Expressions as Consecrated and find it not difficult to use the Politicians as Prevaricators I wish they would observe these considerable Words of Father Mainbourg in his History of Lutheranism These pretended Expositions of the Faith which suppress or dissemble or express in ambiguous Terms only or too much sweetned a part of the Doctrine of the Church do satisfie neither the one nor the other which do equally complain that Men do mince it in an affair so delicate as Faith is where Men cannot fail in one point but that they must fail in all We understand well what he would say and whom he aims at it 's neither at Cardinal Contaren nor at the Authors of ancient Enoticks it 's to those that do Byass it at this day in their Expositions of the Catholick Faith Father Mainbourg writes like an honest Man he is most able and hath the right Sense of things There are then able and honest Men in the Roman Church who disapprove these ways of Sweetning and dare to say and to print it But there are others that think to prosper better in the Conversion of those whom they call Hereticks in stripping the Roman Church of all those terrible Images wherewith others have cloathed it Happily they may be of the same Apprehension with the others but they judge it good to express themselves otherwise to bring nearer again those Spirits which they had scared by their hard Manners Yet would I believe that among those moderate Persons there are many that do deal fairly that would willingly have things as they express them who if they were believed would reduce the Worship of Images to a little matter and would accommodate themselves in divers respects to the Weakness of those whom they consider as separate from the Church I believe the Author of the Saving Advises of the Virgin Mary to her indiscreet Devotes is of this Order and I doubt not but he hath many Approbators But though he had infinitely more that alters nothing at the bottom The Roman Church remains still the same in her Worship in her Canons and in her Dogma's Among all those Works which have for their aim the Sweetning of things and to lead Christians into a Spirit of Reconciliation there 's none more famous than the little Book of my Lord of Condom that hath for Title Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine about Matters of Controversie There was never any Work whereof the Author and his Party have made more boast especially since it 's fortified with the Approbations of Rome They look thereon as on the triumph of the Roman Church and they pretend that those changes of Religion that are at this day sufficiently ordinary and which they call Numerous Conversions are the effects of my Lord of Condom's Method I grant that I am not able enough to enter into the Merit of that piece I see nothing therein but what was written long ago My Lord of Condom hath not been the first who hath essay'd to disguise the Doctrine of the Roman Church It 's more than fity years since that this Method of Sweetning hath been used to draw Men and though it had not been printed it 's certain that it hath been used an hundred times by word of Mouth and face to face Except the delicate Dress the sweet and insinuating Manners of my Lord of Condom and some bold Propositions in the Subject of Images I see nothing there of his own nor that should have gained him so many Approbations Notwithstanding mens Spirits are so affected till labour be taken to recover them from it The Roman Catholick considers this Book as the Buckler of his Faith and the mighty Instrument of Conversions and the Protestant looks thereon as on a Ghost whereof he dreads the Illusions I am deceived if it be so dreadful as men imagine All its St eagth consists in disguising things from us and making us to behold them in another face Therefore there is need only to make that appear in its Natural state which he doth represent through a Veil to us That Work hath been Answer'd most learnedly and solidly and if I had no other design but that of Answering it I believe I should not trouble my Pen about it but here I much less purpose to Answer my Lord of Condom than to make a Book opposite to his All that Art and dexterity can imagine to engage those of our Religion to embrace his own is sprinkl'd through his Book and I will put into mine what I believe most capable to preserve them from the peril whereinto he would cast them My Lord of Condom presents his Religion to us under a Veil which he hath composed by an extraordinary effort of Spirit He would have Us to behold her only through that Veil But he may take it well though we have not that complaisance for him because it might be fatal to our Salvation I will therefore draw this Veil paint out the Roman Religion according to Truth whereto nothing can be reproached and shew it in its Natural complexion This is in my mind the best Preservative that we can give our People and particularly it 's of absolute necessity to ruinate the Design of my Lord of Condom Without having precisely a design to combat him yet will I fight him every where because I shall meet him every where and will be obliged to take off the Veil which he hath spread upon the Worship and the Dogma's of his Church I will bind my self also to follow his Order because he hath nothing but what is natural enough One may easily judge that the Affairs whereinto I chuse to enter is a question of Fact purely I will not engage my self to the discussion of the Right I do not enquire here which hath best Reason whether the Roman Church or the Protestant it 's enough to know what is taught both in the one and in the other Religion and not at all whether it be ill for either of them to teach so Therefore will I forbear proving and will not so much as touch those Proofs that my Lord of Condom brings in for his own Party But before we enter into the particulars I believe it fit we should make some general Reflexions ARTICLE I. General Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book FIrst To know a Book well we must enter if possible into the Spirit of it and see within what prospect it hath been composed The Work now in hand is one of those that hath been produc'd by the design of reuniting the two Religions in France a design which some
Whilst they fell under cover the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti and the Works done for the maintaining thereof Add thereto that they send Post through all Europe under the name of the fournal of the Learned the Praise of those Books which are transported with so much Violence against Moderate Persons It 's true that the Book of my Lord of Condom and the Advertisement which serves for a Preface are also upheld by splendid Approbations But to what purpose That Book enters not into the Particulars it Condemns nothing it Justifies all it Explains It 's true that he grants that there are Practices of Devotion which he doth not approve too much It 's that which is signified by these Words It nothing avails to object against us neither those Practises which they pretend to be general nor the Sense of particular Doctors for without examining those useless Facts it suffices to say in one word that those Practises and Opinions such as they be which will not be conform'd to the Spirit and Decrees of the Council are nothing to the Religion nor to the Body of the Catholick Church They are lost blows which touch nothing because they aim at too many things Those Gentlemen who disapprove in general the Practises which are not conform to the Spirit of the Council of Trent would find work enough if they were obliged to open their mind and to speak clearly They would fear the same Lot with the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti viz. That Rome which hath given its Approbation to that disavowing of some indiscreet Devotions conceived in general terms might nevertheless censure those Censors if they would enter into Particulars and openly condemn what they approve not It 's known in some measure how Jealous the Roman Church is of those Practises which are condemned by honest Men and by moderate Spirits One may judge thereof by the Welcom given to the Bull which the Pope hath published to suppress an Office of the immaculate Conception of the Conception of the Virgin and of many Indulgences That is too publick not to have come to our knowledge It 's certain that if there were a Tribunal Superiour to that of Rome this Tentative had been there vigorously repulsed The Roman Church that could not censure it hath at least despised it This Example may let us see that it 's not sufficient that the Pope should approve or disapprove any thing to make it to be or not to be Though Innocent the Eleventh had approved the Explications of my Lord of Condom it will not be necessarily true that they should be conform'd to the Sense of the Roman Church Those Gentlemen grant that Popes are often but particular Persons and that do not always act under the Character of publick Persons And we may say with some kind of assurance that what was approved by the Pope of this day if Times change but a little might come to be condemned by one of his Successors There want no Examples of the like Contrarieties in the Pieces that flow from this See ARTICLE II. A General Idea of both Religions IT 's time to enter into the Book of my Lord of Condom At his entrance he doth discover his Intention He hopes saith he that his Exposition shall produce two good effects First That many Disputes shall vanish altogether because they are founded upon false Explications of our Creed The Second That the Disputes which shall remain shall not appear like the Principles of the pretended Reform'd so Capital as they at first would make them to be believed and that according to those very Principles they have nothing that hurts the foundations of the Faith That is to say To express the things by other Words that my Lord of Condom will cause both Religions so to reapproach to that Point that one may pass from the Protestant Religion to the Roman without endangering his Salvation in any way although the Protestants do teach nothing but Verities Because that the Controversies that separate the Protestant from the Catholick Roman either are not real or else regard not the foundations of the Faith If that be not the sense of his Words I grant that I see none therein I must ask my Lord of Condom pardon but I cannot forbear to tell him that I find not this design to be honest it is to lead Men to betray Truth and their Consciences The Principle which he lays is of good use for his Church in France where Roman Religion is predominant which hath on her side all Worldly advantages But it 's to be feared that he will carry on his Catholick to renounce easily their Religion in England Holland Denmark Swedland and in other places where Charges and Advantages are distributed by the Protestants For one needs not be extreamly turn'd to the side of Libertinism for to say If Men can pass without Risk from the Protestant Religion though they believe it to be true to the Catholick Religion acknowledging therein some defects one may also without danger pass from the Catholick Religion to the Protestant Religion in believing this moderately bad We must tell the Truth it 's a dangerous Snare that is laid for Us. The Author of the Advertisement doth conjure Protestants by Charity which is God himself and by the Name of Christians which is common to us to judge no more of the Catholick Doctrine by what is told them in their Sermons but by this Exposition But I conjure them by the Care they ought to have of their Salvation to beware of the Illusions that are prepared for them and not to feek here for Pretences when they shall be tempted to quit a Religion hated and disfavoured to follow that which opens the Way to all Preferments There is no less Concerns in this affair than Eternal damnation God who will prove all false Doctrines by the Fire of his Word and those that shall have followed them by that of his terrible Judgment cannot be deceived by Equivocations nor by imperfect Expositions I demand of them a little Sincerity a little Love for their Salvation and a moderate good Sense with those one may easily judge whether both Religions be so near to each other that they differ not but by Disputes which may be caused to vanish in explaining some Terms or by Opinions that hurt not the foundations of Faith I will first give a general Idea both of the One and of the other I 'le suppose an Infidel who seeks for Religion in the several Sects which are among the Christians He enters into the Churches of the Roman Catholicks he sees them filled with Pictures and those Images themselves magnificently adorn'd put into the most Sacred places having at their feet many Suppliants Persons prostrate before them kissing them embracing their knees burning Torches before them or Wax Candles incensing them and carrying them about in pompous Processions In those Churches also doth
possible to deny it There is no Heresie whereof they would not render us guilty They have said that with Arrius we deny the Eternity of the Son and his Deity that with Nestorius we establish two Persons in Jesus Christ that with Eutyches we confound his two Natures They are two opposite Heresies and which cannot subsist together It matters not all is well enough if we be but calumniated Hath not Bellarmine made a Preface to his Book de Christo expresly to prove that we are Nestorians Sabellians Arrians and Eutychians Hath not Gregory of Valencia made a thick Book de Unitate Trinitate against the Lutherans and the Calvinists asserting that the Lutherans are truly of the Opinion of Servetus and that the Calvinists deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ And doth not Father Cresset say but newly That we hate the Virgin because we hate her Son In regard of Free Will they would have Us to be in the Party of the Manichees who said That Men were by their Nature determined to good or to evil and that they are not carried thereto by Choice and by Will In regard of Good Works they attribute to Us the horrid Opinion of the Gnosticks that said That the Spirital man may plunge himself into the most abominable Crimes of the Flesh without fear of the least Pollution or any Condemnation They say That we deny the necessity of Good Works to Salvation that we make a vile Sinner after a small act of Faith and Repentance as just as the Holy Virgin that we make Men to be Just by the Righteousness of another as if we should make a black Stuff to be white with the whiteness of another Stuff that we do cloath our Just man with an imputed Justice under which are hid the most horrid moral Impurities that we lead men to Salvation by the way of Crimes Murthers and Adulteries that we render the effects of Predestination infallible like the Mahumetans so that a Man Predestinate living like a Devil cannot fail to become happy like an Angel That we would have an Adulterer a Fornicator yea a Man guilty of the Vilest disorders may be as assured of his Salvation as Jesus Christ that our Lord Jesus Christ despaired that he was damned that we are Enemies to the Saints In fine Who could number all the Calumnies wherewith they load us to render us odious That is but a small part thereof And the most terrible of all it 's that though we justifie our selves never so often and tell them we abhor all those Heresies that we detest them that we combat them though we explain our selves never so much and declare that the Words so abused are taken in a Counter-sense though we cry out against the Calumny protest our Innocency formally reject all the Consequences imputed to us that comes to nothing and they still return to the like again We must needs be Hereticks at any rate and they repeat against Us this day all those Calamities with the same air of Confidence as if we had nothing to answer thereto or had never answered the same We should more easily bear with those Excesses if that we had none to complain of but those small Declaimers who do harangue on Shop-boards and who preach in the Markets from the Steps of a Cross If those Outrages were done Us but by those little Scribes who are void of Science Name Spirit Honour and Conscience whereof the World is full But it 's impossible not to lose our Patience when we see Authors that are grave and able learn'd and famous compose great Volumes whereof all the Pages are soiled with those black Slanders whereto we have answered an hundred times When we cannot blame Ignorance and Insufficiency we cannot but complain of unsincere dealings and say that such a Course is not honest It 's an inseparable Character of the false Church Hereticks have always dealt thus with the Orthodox They have still calumniated them and have disfigured by their Imputations the purest and holiest Doctrines we need but to have read a few of the Holy Fathers to be assured thereof But the true Church was always most tender of Sincerity She would never slander her Adversaries and would never disjoyn Zeal from fair dealing Here is another kind of foul dealing that appears less Criminal it 's that which flatters Religion whereof she draws the Picture which dissembles her deformities and gives an air of Innocence and Purity to all This Artifice seems to be innocent every one should be permitted to make himself known by his best sorts and shew its fairest side And this is a Method that hath been extreamly used for some years of late for to defend the Roman Church There are two ways of defending her one is in rejecting the Manage of Policy in using the most ordinary and common Expressions In saying for Example That part of Religious Worship is due to Saints that they may be invok'd as Intercessours with God as they to whom God hath given under himself the Government of the World that Temples may be built Fasts appointed celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass to their Honour make Vows to them and yield to them part of all that which may be called Religion So speaks Vasquez that the Sense of the Catholick Church confirm'd by Tradition and perpetual Use is that there is due to Saints a Sacred Adoration In saying that one may ask of them whatever is ask'd of God Health Protection Remission of Sins Salvation Grace and Glory So that we pray not to them as to the first Authors of these Graces In saying that one must reverence adore and salute the Images of the most holy Virgin Mother of God of the glorious Angels and of all the Saints and that all those that are not of that mind ought to be Anathematized In saying That the Sacrifice of the Mass is a true Sacrifice and so called properly that it 's not a simple Commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross but a Propitiatory Sacrifice which is offered for the Pains for the Satisfactions and for other Necessities of the Faithful In thundering out which Anathema's against all that would not receive those Propositions and all others in the very Sense of the Church There is a second Manner of defending the Opinions and Practises of the Roman Church that is in sweetning them In saying for Example That the Worship of Saints is Nothing at the bottom that Invocations addressed to them are not of another Natnre but such as are made to living Saints when we recommend our selves to their Prayers That the Scandal taken from the Worship of Images is a Scandal ill taken that at the bottom they are set in the Church but for the use of Commemoration that human Satisfactions are no prejudice to those of Jesus Christ because they serve only to apply the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ The first Method was in this regard in the way of very
there is no reason to say That Men must adore Images that there is no reason to fasten any virtue thereto to imagine that an Image of our Lady doth more Miracles than another that its blame worthy to carry them about in pomp to prostrate ones self before them to place them on Altars to make Vows and Pilgrimages to them and to buâ—n Incense to them as formerly they did to the false Gods If Invocation of Saints be done in the same Spirit as the Prayers which we present to the Faithful alive to pray for us It 's to accuse all those who do Invocate the Saints in another Spirit After all that I demand of those Gentlemen Why they do seek for an Extraordinary Turn That which they had used hitherto either was good reasonable and proper to give just Idea's of the Doctrine of the Roman Church or it was not so If it was not reason it is they should take another But how can it be that for so many years they have defended the Roman Church by so many Works without finding the proper Turn to give a just Idea of her Doctrine It 's a blindness of the preceding Doctors hardly to be conceived It 's a good hap for my Lord of Condom to have first found out the true sense of the Doctrine of the Church whereof one cannot suspect the cause But if the Turn which my Lord of Condom hath found out is different in that thing it self that it's different from others doth it not condemn them If that which he saith to us be the only true Sense of the Church all other Senses which Doctors have given it are false Senses and consequently he condemns all those that have not spoken like him Without doubt my Lord of Condom will say It was not his design to say any thing new that his Explications of the Doctrine of the Church are the Sense of the Canons of the Councils and of the decisions of the Doctors But if he pretended not to say any thing Extraordinary whence then comes the great Noise which those Gentlemen have made of that Work Can they look for so great Honour from a Thing that should have been said by all other Authors Whence is it that they have begg'd Approbations from all parts of the World That they put amongst those Approbators Cardinals Bishops yea the Pope himself For a thing which all the World had said should there be need of so mony Props seeing it could not be combated nor question'd Why doth my Lord of Condom at the end of his Work shew that he would not have us examine the different Means which the Catholick Theologues have used to establish or to cleaâ— up the Doctrine of the Council of Trent If he be agreed with the Doctors of his fide hath he cause to fear lest we should compare his Senses with theirs And is it not clear that he confesses thereby that he stands in great opposition to them If my Lord of Condom hath brought to light but the true and ancient Sense of the Church why doth he say at the end of his Book that he hath ruined all Disputes for that is it which these words signifie For to s y on this Treatise something solid c. they must shew that this Explication leaves all Disputes in their intire state He pretends then that his Explication must make all Disputes to cease I do not believe that he pretends thereto by the force of the Reasons whereby he hath upheld his cause For a little Book that only explains and which doth not prove cannot cause Disputes to cease by way of Discussion If it were true that the Sense which my Lord of Condom doth give is the Sense of the Roman Catholick Church that it should be received by both Parties and that it would not leave Disputes in their whole state it were true also that it would be some thing which the gravest Authors had not yet perceived For hitherto all the Divines of the Roman Catholick Church have verily believed that the Controversies about Images Invocation of Saints Indulgences Satisfactions were intire Disputes and most real The Council of Trent hath without doubt believed so for if their Sense had been that which my Lord of Condom gives and that it 's a Sense which leaves not Disputes whole why hath it pronounc'd Anathema's against the Lutherans and Zuinglians about things whereof it's decisions made all Disputes to vanish Let 's deal truly Did not the Council fulminate and condemn those People They did not then believe that the Sense of their Canons could easily be reconciled with the Doctrine of Zuinglius and of Luther Besides that I do not well conceive how my Lord of Condom can defend himself for having brought to light a Sense that was unknown to all that have Written and to the Prelates of the Council of Trent themselves Without doubt those Prelates pronounced Oracles without understanding them and more than an Age after an Interpreter is come who hath discovered that which the Holy Spirit had hitherto kept secret But it imports not whether my Lord of Condom be the first or only Man that hath understood the Council of Trent to the Exclusion of the Council it self he cannot hinder us from concluding That in establishing his Sense as the only good and as the Doctrine of his Church he condemns all others which the Doctors have given hitherto and therefore he acts for us and favours our Cause as much as it can be favoured Although the Explications of my Lord of Condom should terminate some different we should not be obliged to believe upon his Word that his Sense should be that of the Council of Trent It hath reproached to these Gentlemen that these Explications were against the Bull of Pius the Fourth which expresly forbids all Explications of that Council These be its own words To avoid the Confusions and Disorders that might arise if it were permitted to every One to bring to light their Commentaries and Interpretations upon the Decrees of the Council by Authority Apostolical we forbid all Persons Ecclesiastick or Laick of whatsoever Dignity Condition Honour or Power whatsoever and all Prelates under pain of being Interdicted the Entrance of the Church and others under pain of Excommunication to undertake without our Authority Commentaries Glosses Annotations Observations or any other kind of Interpretations under whatsoever Name neither under the very pretence of maintaining the Decrees better or Executing or any other Colour And if any find there is any thing obscure less clear needing Interpretation we Ordain he should ascend to the place which the Lord hath chosen that is to the Apostolick Seat which is the Master of all the Faithful and whereof the Holy Council it self hath acknowledged the Authority in a manner so full of respect After that should it be permitted to any private Man to give to the Council a Sense unknown to the whole Earth unknown even to the
Justification It is for Example the odious Term which they give unto Doctrines the most innocent in the World The Seventh Canon is made to perswade That we look upon as very Sins the motions of Faith and Contrition that ought to precede Justification Which is not so The Eighth supposes that we say That every fear of Hell is a Sin and serves only to render Sinners more Criminal which is far distant from our Sentiments The 9 th the 19 th the 21 th and the 27 th condemn us as if we did teach That for to be Justified we need only to have a naked Faith simple and destitute of the society of good Works A Doctrine which we most abhor The 10 th and the following have given place to those Tragical Declamations against Imputed Righteousness whereof these Gentlemen acknowledge this day the Truth and Innocence So the Justice of Jesus Christ is not only imputed but actually communicated to his Faithful Ones by the operation of the Holy Ghost saith my Lord of Condom The 13 th and 14 th impute an absurd Doctrine to us That for obtaining remission of Sins and Justification we must believe that we have already received it 5. Behold yet another Reason of our refusal to Subscribe the Decrees of this Council about Justification It is because it condemns for Heresies those Opinions which we believe to be sound and true The 12 th Canon the 15 th and 16 th in giving an odious and little faithful Turn to our Doctrine upon the Certainty that we may have that we are in Grace and that we are Predestinate would snatch away from us a Truth which we believe to be of absolute necessity for the tranquillity of the faithful Soul It 's Confidence in God and in his Promises which renders us certain of our Salvation for so long a time as we are in actual obedience to his Commands The Canon 17 th and 23 th which impute unto us to believe That Men are Predestinated to Evil which we do abhor would at the same time take away from us a Truth clearly couched in the Word of God and which hath been acknowledg'd by St. Augustine It is That God calls no others but those whom he hath Predestinated and Justifies no others but such as he hath so called and will Glorifie no others but such as he hath so Justified that is to say That the Grace which God gives the Reprobate is not a Grace truly Justifying and that Justification is never lost The Canon 18 th and 25 th tend to ruine a very considerable Truth viz. That in our best Works there are some defects A Sentiment which we account so important that without it according to us cannot be preserved our Christian Humility And at the same time those same Canons impute to us to say That all the good Works of the Faithful are mortal Sins the which we abhor The 28 th sets down a Doctrine which we cannot receive it is That Faith without Charity and without Works is a true Faith 6. In fine We cannot subscribe to the Doctrine of this Decree because that although the Canons thereof were in some places capable of receiving a good Sense in the Theory yet they give them a very bad one in the Practise For Example the 18 th Canon that saith That Man can fulfil the Law of God when he is upheld by his Grace And the 38 th which expounds in what manner our Works are Merits might be received with the Glosses of Monsieur de Condom but they cannot be suffered in that Sense which the practise of the Vulgar gives them I maintain that the Devouts of the Roman Church believe to be saved by the Merit of their Works and to gain Paradise by their Mortifications as Men gain a moderate Reward by the greatest of all Labours Able Men among the Moderns do speak of this Matter like my Lord of Condom I grant but Vulgar Predicators deliver this Doctrine in a most scandalous manner and most approaching to Pelagianisme The Canons of the Council may receive this popular Sense which they give it in their Practise as well as that which Able Men of the Church of Rome give thereto in their Theory But are we obliged to receive and prefer the Sense of Theory which doth nothing and which is shut up among a few Persons to this Sense of Practise which is diffused through the World Why have Men so much jealousie for this Term Merit which is proud and opposite to Christian Humility Though Men strive much they will never blot out of it those Idea's of Pride which Use hath fastened thereto Whilst it is said to Men that their Works merit Eternal life they will always perswade them selves that those Works are of a great Perfection and that there is a proportion between what they give to God and what God renders to them Though we were different but only in Terms were it not better to speak with us seeing our style carries one necessarily to Humility than with such Canons whose Expressions do carry one naturally to Pride Whereupon are founded those proud Opinions that in shutting up themselves in a Convent that in making Vows of Celibate Poverty and Chastity in doing voluntary Mortifications Men have Righteousness and Merits to spare so as to impart to such as have not enough and that Men can have Works of Supererogation Whence comes all that I say but from the Theology of this Council and of that of its Interpreters In a word to shorten I say there are at least Four Reasons for which we cannot yield to the Doctrine of Justification in that manner wherein the Council hath explained it 1. The first is That by its Ambiguities and its uncertain Expressions it hath left Semi-Pelagianisme entirely untouched and even Pelagianisme it self too The Second That it condemns us unjustly attributing to us Opinions which we do not hold at all The Third That it condemns such Truths which we may not and ought not to forsake The Fourth That its Expressions do conduce naturally to the Sense which we give it and do oppose as appears by the Practise of the People and of its Devouts and by the Books of the Demi-Doctors of the Roman Church My Lord of Condom may see presently that without casting our selves upon Questions of Subtilty as he speaks there are yet many things that separate us from him about the Article of Justification ARTICLE VIII Of Satisfactions Indulgences and Purgatory MY Lord of Condom hath reason to treat of Indulgences and Satisfactions after Justification for Indulgences are the Justifications of Men and Justification is the Indulgence of God But he must permit me to tell him that he hath no reason to treat this Affair as a Controversie of Nothing and that should not separate us from the Roman Church They say that Catholicks teach with a common accord That only Jesus Christ God and Man together was capable by the infinite
the Truth Mean while we declare that Real Presence precisely in it self and without its Attendants is the least of our Controversies about the Eucharist that Adoration Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the Retranchment of the Cup and Masses without Communicants seem to us much more important That those Attendants are not according to us Natural Attendants of the Real Presence precisely in it self they are false and evil Consequences which Men have drawn out of it For it is but a bad Reasoning in our Judgment to say The Body of Jesus Christ is Spiritually and Invisibly under the Accidents of Bread and Wine therefore it must be Sacrificed therefore it must be adored and we must retrench the Cup from the People That is it which we shall particularly demonstrate But before that I shall give a Third Advice upon what Monsieur of Condom saith about the importance of the Controversie of the Real Presence It is that granting it to be important he dissembles all the Importance thereof There is nothing saith he that appears more important in our Controversies seeing the question is of the Presence of Jesus Christ himself The Question is not only of that but 1. The Question is Whether we shall oppose all the Lights of our Senses which say that the Signs of the Eucharist are Bread and Wine and if we shall believe that God doth continually offer Illusion to our Senses which is opposite to his Verity and to his Purity 2. The Question is Whether we must suppose that God doth every Moment and without necessity violate the Laws of Nature that are most inviolable which is opposite to his Wisdom 3. The Question is Whether we shall receive a Theology whereof the Consequences destroy all Christian Religion a Theology which confounds Body and Soul and takes away the Bounds that distinguish them A Doctrine which supposing the Flesh of Christ becomes Spiritual Invisible subsisting under a Point confounds the Body with the Soul For I know not how else we can define the Properties of the Soul but in saying She is Invisible without Extension without Space and concluded under a Point This Doctrine also confounds Human Nature with the Divine for it gives to the Flesh of Jesus Christ that which belongs only to his Divinity that is to be in many Places at once and be able to fill Heaven and Earth It destroys the Article of Ascension and robs the Church of that Proof which she made use of against those Hereticks who denied the Truth of the Human Nature of Jesus Christ sor they opposed them by a Proof drawn from thence That during the Life of the Lord Men had always seen in him all the Actions the Motions and Properties of Man This Reasoning will be nothing worth if a Body can be without its Properties and if the Properties of a Body can be without a Body 4. The Question is Whether Men may settle such a manner of Interpreting Scripture which will overthrow all Scripture and will give place to all Heresies if by one passage alone one must explain an hundred others which seem to say the contrary or if by the hundred one should explain that which is alone For for one only passage that saith That that which we see in the Eucharist is the Body of Jesus Christ there are seven or eight others which say formally That it is Bread and Wine The Bread that we break Whosoever shall eat this Bread Whensoever you eat of this Bread Let every one eat of this Bread 5. The Question is to know Whether we will belie our Lord Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Ghost who tells us That we shall not have him always with us that he was going to Heaven that the Heaven must hold him till the restoration of all things 6. The Question is to know Whether to avoid a Natural Figure in these Words This is my Body we shall expose Christian Religion to the scandal of Infidels yea to the greatest Scandal that can be imagined For in fine whilst they shall be able to reproach us That we eat our own God it is certain they will never come to us 7. The Question is Whether we should ruine one of the Sacraments of the Church in destroying the Bread in nullifying the Sign and substituting in its place the Thing signified 8. The Question is to know Whether we should draw down the Lord of Glory from the Throne of his Majesty to nullifie him a second time but with an Annihilation greater than that which he descended into after his Incarnation The Question is to know If this be to respect Jesus Christ our Lord sufficiently to call him down back by the help of three Words ill explained to place him in Impure places to expose him to be trod under feet to be eaten by the Profane to be mingled with Poyson and with Death and to a thousand other Dangers that one dares not express 9. The Question is to know finally If for a Corporal Communion without which one may be saved and wherewith one may be damned and which consequently is not necessary to Salvation we must overthrow all the Rules of Reason of good Sense of Grace and of Nature I know not if after all this any one shall be able to say again Reality and Transubstantiation are not an Affair that should retain you nor hinder you from re-entring into the Roman Church Monsieur of Condom saith thereupon Two things which are to the purpose and which are to be examined The first is That we have shortned our selves those great Spaces of Separation They have approached nearer to us saith he it is because we admit a Presence real It is because our Catechism saith That Jesus Christ makes us partakers of his proper substance and our Confession of Faith That he nourishes us with the Substance of his Body and Blood It is because we say That although Jesus Christ be truly communicated to to us by Baptism and by the Gospel nevertheless it is but in part and not fully Thereupon my Lord of Condom Reasons after his manner and as seems him good Behold then saith he the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present in our Mysteries by the Grant of Calvinists Behold Jesus Christ received in his proper Substance Jesus Christ is given us in the Eucharist in a manner which suits neither Baptism nor the Gospel and which is wholly proper to this Mystery It follows then that this Participation is not fixed to the Faith seeing that Faith being diffused generally through all the Actions of a Christian is found in the Preaching and in Baptism First I would fain know what Service all this doth to the principal purpose of Monsieur de Condom which is to reapproach us to himself Are we nearer thereto because of some resemblance in the Terms Though we had ill explained our Doctrine and by Incommodious Terms have we then changed it at the bottom And doth not he
Theirs and to make Profession of the Real Presence We have offered only to them in remaining still separate from them as We are both by Assemblies and by some Ceremonies external little important to tolerate them to regard them as our Brethren to receive them when they will come to us without obliging them to an express abjuration of the Doctrines that separate us Behold what we have offered And it is demanded of us That abandoning our Assemblies our Ceremonies and our Doctrines and particularly that of the Real Presence we should re-unite that is to say that we re-enter without any more ado into the Roman Church to believe the Real Presence or at least to make Profession of believing it There is so great difference between tolerating an Errour and to make Profession of believing that Errour that the former may be an action of Charity and the second cannot be but an abominable Hypocrisie The one serves towards Salvation and by the other we evidently hazard our Salvation I can say with assurance that if we should re-enter into the Lutheran Church and that we should bring back our People to them to make their Profession of the Real Presence we should commit a Crime that God would never pardon us After that they would have Ministers to lead back their People into the Roman Church without Mystery to make their Profession of the Real Presence which is a thousand times more dangerous than what we tolerate in the Lutherans 2. We may further tolerate the Real Presence of the Lutherans without tolerating that of the Roman Church because there is a very great difference between the one and the other But before we pass further it is good to remark that what those Doctours say is not true That we regard that Real Presence of the Lutherans as a light Errour It is a great Evil and to cure our Brethren of it we would willingly have given half our own Blood And what we have offered to tolerate them it was principally in hope to bring them back by little and little from their wandring If then we say that their is no Venom in that Opinion we understand it of mortal Venom and a killing One. It is enough to confess some Venom in an Opinion to acknowledge therein some Absurdities which dishonour Reason and blast Christian Religion and we acknowledge it too much in the Real Presence of the Lutherans But it is true that we believe not that it destroys any foundation of Faith We regard it principally in that manner wherein it is expressed in their Confession which saith Touching the Lords Supper they teach that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are truly present and are distributed to them who eat at the Lords Supper and condemn those who say the contrary There is nothing in these general Words that we might not subscribe to As for the manner of this Presence they are reserved and define it not They say Jesus Christ is there but we know not how If there be any which do pass rashly further in setling what they call Ubiquity that is to say the Presence of Christ's Humanity in all places of the World that passes not among them for a Fundamental Point The Real Presence of the Lutherans doth not destroy the Bread for they confess that the Signs are of true Bread and true Wine and according to that they do not suppose that God offers perpetually an Illusion to our Senses to make us see and feel a Body where there is not a Body They do not destroy the Sacrament seeing they leave the Signs entire The Real Presence of the Lutherans hath not for Attendants the Adoration of the Eucharist and obliges not Men to adore a Creature It doth not induce a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Among the Lutherans they have not retranched the Cup from the People In fine It is not accompanied with an infinite Number of Worships of Ceremonies and of Doctrines which be incompatible with the purity of the Faith In that Church they do not Worship Images they do not Invoke Saints they do not prostrate themselves before Relicks they serve God in a Known Tongue they acknowledge no Mediator but Jesus Christ no other Satisfaction but his Merit any other Indulgence but his Grace any other Soveraign Authority but his own and that of his Word In a word Let the Roman Church set her Real Presence in the same state as is that of the Lutherans and we will offer to them the same thing which we offer to these so they will not ask us any more that is to say that we will offer them a Toleration so that she will not demand us to re-enter into her Communion For yet once more We never offered to conjoyn with the Lutheran Church whilst they abide in the state wherein they are and we will never do it for any thing in the World 3. I must yet Advertize once more these Gentlemen that for to know the poyson of an Errour one must principally regard it in that which is diffused on practice both of the Worship and of Morality Then for to know how dangerous the Real Presence is we must not regard it in her self but in the Attendants given it that is Adoration the Sacrifice and the Retranchment of the Cup. There it is that the danger lies and that is it that the Lutherans have not No subtilty of the Ministers saith Monsieur de Condom shall ever be able to perswade Men of good Sense that bearing with the Reality which is the most important Point and the more difficult they ought not also to tolerate the rest How can the Ingenuity and Light of Monsieur of Condom permit him to say that What if they tolerate a Speculative Opinion which changes nothing in the Worship and in the Religion shall we be obliged to tolerate the Adoration of a Creature which is of all things most opposite to the Foundations of Faith If a Man be perswaded that God is in the Sun by a presence of Substance greater than that wherewith he is in the rest of the World it would be an absurd Opinion But I know not whether there be any Person that would damn a Man for that alone but if that Man would conclude from that Errour that Men ought to worship the Sun and should himself so worship it what Sentiment should we have of him As for me I would tolerate his Errour as a Visionary Thought but I would abhor him as an Idolater because of his Conclusion If then to perswade Men it may be sufficient to express things with a great Assurance I say there will never be any subtilty or disguise that may perswade Men of good Sense that Toleration for a Real Presence should induce to a Toleration for the Attendants which the Roman Church gives it They say to that That they are not Attendants given thereto but that they are Natural Attendants and that even the
Calvinists do agree that supposing that one must take literally these Words This is my Body Catholicks reason better and more Consequentially than the Lutherans We do not confess that it is good that the Publick should be advertized of it It is a surprizing Slander that Facts of this kind should be advanc'd without proof Monsieur Daillé in his Apology for the Reformed Churches employs a whole Chapter to prove the contrary Monsieur de Langres hath published a Sermon upon these Words Be ye such as to give no stumbling Block neither to the Jew nor to the Greek wherein he proves That Adoration is not an Attendant of the Lutherans Real Presence and I will make it appear that it is not an Attendant even of the Roman Churches Real Presence If any of ours have confessed what Mon-Monsieur of Condom saith it was in the heat of Dispute against the Lutherans and we make no difficulty to disown it But the following Articles will oblige us to penetrate further into this Matter and to prove that Adoration the Sacrifice c. are not Natural Attendants of the Real Presence ARTICLE XI Of the Adoration of the Host. WE are going to make a Chapter of a Point whereon Monsieur de Condom hath made but one Period which is this I will not stay upon the Point of Adoration because the most Learned and most Judicious of our Adversaries have long ago granted us That the Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist ought to carry to Adoration those that are perswaded thereof And after that they would accuse Anonyme that he had accused Monsieur de Condom to pass by the difficulties which he finds most troublesom Is it possible that Monsieur de Condom should imagine that we are so deprived of common Sense to suffer our selves to be surprized by such Illusions He will not stay upon the Adoration of the Eucharist He shall do what pleases him but he may permit me to stay thereon and that I may shew to all them who are sollicited to change their Religion that this is a Capital Affair and that for this Article alone there is no less danger than of their Salvation by such a Change I have no need to stand upon that Truth which is acknowledged of all the World that God doth absolutely forbid the Adoration of the Creature under Eternal Pains I will observe only that in the business here in agitation we tread not upon Thorns as w do at other times when we are obliged to express the Sense of the Roman Church For Example when we speak of the Worship which they render to the Saints and Images We know not in what Terms to speak the Truth for within this short time these Gentlemen thrust on their Delicateness to the extream Here it is not so As they keep no measure they do not oblige us to keep any the most Scrupulous speak freely they say roundly That Men must adore the Sacrament with Adoration of Latria They are the terms of the Council There is no plea for doubt but that all the Faithful according to the Custom which hath always been received in the Catholick Church owe to this most Holy Sacrament in the veneration thereof the Adoration of Latria which is due to the True God Let us learn what is meant by this Adoration of Latria It is a Soveraign Adoration it is an Act of infinite Annihilation of the Creature before the Creator it is a Worship which concludes all the Acts of Faith and Love Hope and Admiration Confidence Zeal and Acknowledgment and in general all Homages due to a Being infinitely Good and infinitely Merciful Behold what they would have us to render to that which we consider but as a Creature This is the business which they would dispatch in a Period To know of what importance this Adoration is let 's first consider it in respect to our Principles and then we will consider it with respect to the Principles of Monsieur de Condom and of his Church I must then entreat these Gentlemen that they would presuppose for a moment with me that we Reason in giving a figurative Sense to these Words This is my Body In a moment I will have for them the same Complaisance which I now ask of them and I will suppose that the Sense which they give unto these Words be true In this Supposition that here is no Real Presence no Transubstantiation I pray them to consider what is done in adoring this Sacrament They worship Bread and I know not whether Bread how holy soever it be be more worthy to be adored than the Sun and Stars which are so beautiful and wherein God's Image shines with so much brightness What would be said of a Man that should worship the Water of Baptism the Sounds of God's Word the Characters of the Holy Scripture I confess that the Sacraments though one should even suppose that Jesus Christ is not concluded within it is a thing most holy and most venerable But there is an infinite distance between Reverence and Adoration We owe respect to the Gospel and to Baptism we owe them no Adoration But here is a Thought whereby we know very well that many Persons who are not very well perswaded of the Real Presence do flatter themselves and others Although say they the Body of Jesus Christ were not there whatever it be we adore it wherever it be our Adoration doth terminate in him and we shall always have this Reason to give before the Throne of God I had intention to adore you I am perswaded that this Excuse shall not be received by the Judge of the World He must then justifie almost all the Pagans who in adoring the Creatures had an intention of Adoring God Then should he shew favour to those Jews which adored the Golden Calf for they had an intention to adore God That appears evidently enough in what they say of that Calf These are thy gods O Israel which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Can they be thought brutish enough to have thought that the figure of this Calf which was but now made before their Eyes had brought them out of Egypt before it was made Who sees not that they regarded this Calf as the Image and Emblem of that Great GOD who had done so many Wonders in their favour Yet had the Wrath of Gnd almost consumed them with all their good Intentions And if one believes the Jews of this day their present Calamity is still an Attendant thereof for they have a Proverb that says That in every one of their Miseries there is a part of the Golden Calf Men say I direct my Intention to Jesus Christ whatever part he be in In Conscience let them tell me if a Man which with the like direction of Intention should adore the Sun and the Moon would be innocent Jesus Christ is not there but he may be there he is there at least by his Divinity
confess himself That the more we explain our selves the more contrary we find our selves to be So all the trouble he takes to convince us by our Principles is more than useless At the most we should only be convinc'd to have spoken in one manner and to have thought in another But we will not yield him that very pleasure of believing that justly We speak as we think and our Expressions are not as they would perswade us an effect of that Politick which is ordinary to such as estrange themselves from the Truth It is that retaining the Sense of the true Church they keep as far as they can possibly her own Expressions We believe a Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Supper as we believe a Real Presence of the Sun upon Earth No man mends to lie nor doth he lie at all when he saith That was done in the presence of the Sun When the Sun is risen he is present to us Yet no Man hitherto hath busied his Head to cause the Sun to descend from Heaven and to shut him up substantially within one of his Beams The Sun is really present by his Light by his Beams and by his Virtue Christ's Humanity is present by its Virtue by its Efficacy by its Merit which are as so many Beams It is a Presence most Real though it be not Corporal And I wonder how my Lord of Condom hath not learn'd it from his Scholasticks They that speaking of the manner wherein Causes do act say that some do act Immediatione Virtutis by an immediate Presence of Vertues and others Immediatione suppositi by an immediate presence of Persons of Suppost or Substance Who should say to those Doctors of the School That their immediate Presence of Virtue is a Chimaera and is not a real Presence I believe they make stir enough about it being so much in love with wrangling We believe sincerely as we speak it that we are made partakers of the proper Substance of Jesus Christ because we are not made partakers of the Substance of another because we receive the efficacy and merit of that Flesh really And that is all that is important to our Salvation in that Flesh for otherwise it's Nerves it 's Fibres it's Bones as such do not Sanctifie nor Justifie The Flesh profits nothing it is the Spirit that gives life If they will repeat to Eternity That it is not possible to make it to be understood that a Body which is not communicated to us but in Spirit and by Faith be really communicated to us and in its proper Substance We cannot help it otherwise than to repeat always also that the Spiritual Actions of the Soul are as real and more real than the Corporal Actions of the Body Though the Spirit alone by Faith do see the Humanity of Christ Jesus in Heaven we believe that that Sight is more real amd less subject to Illusion than that of Bodies which shall see Jesus Christ with the Eyes of Flesh and I can hardly conceive that Men can have their Comprehension of so great hardness as not to be able to comprehend that In fine We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is more fully communicated to us in the Eucharist than in Baptism because we have in the Eucharist that which we have in Baptism what we have in the Word of God and somewhat more It is not that Jesus Christ and his Graces can be divided he that receives Jesus Christ receives him whole intirely Yet the more that Grace is setled in our Souls the more Means God employs to sortifie it there and the more so far do we partake of Jesus Christ Three are more than Two When after having received the Grace of Baptism and Instruction by the Word God doth also add thereto the Sacrament of the Eucharist it is certain that Grace is confirmed augmented and established thereby and that we possess Jesus Christ more closely still Besides that it is certain that Jesus Christ hath promised to communicate to us his Graces in a particular manner and more efficacious in a Communion most devout than in the Word because the Word doth propose Graces but in general and a devout Communion applies them to every particular I will not touch what Monsieur de Condom saith upon these Words of our Catechism That the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ inasmuch as it hath been once offered in Sacrifice to reconcile us to God is now given to us to certifie us that we have a share in that Reconciliation I find what he saith thereon so fine and of so great Subtilty that I am assured that they for whom this principally was written will hardly understand it and that they who have a Spirit Metaphysical enough to enter into these abstracted Reflexions I believe they also will have penetration enough not to entangle themselves therewith The other thing which Monsieur de Condom saith which is to the purpose that we treat of is that we have offered Peace to the Lutherans who believe the Real Presence and that we have declared that this Doctrine hath no Venom at all that it doth not overthrow the Foundation of Faith and that it should not break Communion among Brethren And thereupon they tell us That whatever Evil might be in the Opinion of the Real Presence we have taken from our selves the right of prevailing thereby Seeing that you tolerate it in the Lutherans why should you not tolerate it in Catholicks We oppose thereto that they give Attendants to the Reality which we cannot tolerate Monsieur de Condom Answers That no Subtilty of the Minesters shall ever be able to perswade Men of good Sense that bearing with the Reality which is the Point most important and difficult they should not also bear with the rest He adds That by a secret Providence it hath happened that Calvinists have agreed that supposing that we should take literally these Words This is my Body the Catholicks do Reason better and more consequently than the Lutherans It would be presently a great rashness to hope that we may shut the Mouth of those Gentlemen about this Objection which they have renewed within these 50 years more than a Million of times and whereto Answer hath been made as often without being able to obtain from them a Moment of Equity It is not then to them that I will speak since they are resolved not to hear us it is to them that seek their Salvation with a Spirit of Humility and I pray them to consider 1. That what we have offered to the Lutherans is infinitely different from that which they demand of us at this day We have offered to the Lutherans to tolerate them in the Doctrine of the Real Presence and they demand of us to re enter into the Roman Church to make Profession thereof Have we offered to the Lutherans to re-enter into their Communion to break our Assemblies to incorporate them with