proves that the figurative Sense is a By-way He calls to his help the Types of the Old Testament He abridges what the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have said of the Laws and Rules of the Language to prove that these Words This is my Body cannot be taken in a figurative Sense Yea he refutes and he answers he labours to elude the Proof which we draw from these Words Do this in remembrance of me he expounds our Doctrine and thence draws Arguments for himself I grant that all these ways agree not with my designed Method and I should reckon my self to wander if I should Monsieur of Condom therein I still remember his Prayer which he makes to him that shall desire to answer this Treatise He is intreated to consider that if he would advance any thing he must not undertake to confute the Doctrine which it contains Monsieur of Condom will permit me to tell him That for to advance in his design he should not have undertaken to prove his Doctrine which he had only a design to explain Between him and us at present the Question is not about the Truth of Doctrines but only about their importance The Question is Whether many Disputes may vanish away by the Explications of the Faith of the Roman Church And if the Disputes remaining be as Capital as we would at first have made Men to believe He had undertaken to prove that these latter Disputes according to our Principles do not hurt the foundations of the Faith These are his Words Behold what was his Business and what he should have done But he changes quite he puts an Illusion on us He had promised us one thing and doth another for instead of proving that the Doctrines of Reality and Transubstantiation according to our Principles do not wound the Foundations of the Faith he proves that they are true I confess that this Turn is dextrous having almost nothing to say to colour a Doctrine of that importance and not willing to pass it by without speaking thereof he hath taken the part of proving it Without scruple I will pass over his Proofs Not but that I would do Justice to Monsieur of Condom and would aknowledge here as every where else his Wit his Delicateness and his Dexterity in turning curiously his ways of Reasoning But in fine Methinks I have read nothing in this place but what hath been said many times and whereto sufficient Answers have been often return'd It 's very hard to terminate so grand an Affair with so short an Instruction so short as we find here I will content my self therefore to conjure those who have any care of their Salvation to consult such Authors as have written on this Matter if the difficulties they may find in this place do occasion any such Scruple to arise in them I can hardly believe that such a thing may happen and I think that those who shall suffer themselves to be taken thereby shall have first designed to be deceived In all that Monsieur de Condom saith about the Eucharist there is nothing that maketh for his Subject and tends to our purpose but the Explication which he giv s to our Doctrine and what he calls Reflexion on the Doctrine of the Eucharist There first he confesses that there is nothing wherein we are so effectually opposite So the Dispute cannot be nullified by the Explications of our Beliefs Very far from that the more we explain to the bottom our selves saith he the more we shall find our selves contrary He also grants that it is an important Affair There is nothing saith he which appears more important in our Controversies since the Question is about the Presence of Jesus Christ himself So that Monsieur de Condom cannot yet do here what he had at first proposed to do that is to shew That the remaining Disputes are not so Capital as we at first would have made Men believe He goes yet beyond all that He pretends that it is the only important Controversie and that if we can satisfie ovr selves about it the rest shall vanish easily away That is it which these Words signifie One may wholly dissipate or reduce to very few things the others Subjects of their Complaints so that things be explained About all that we have somewhat to say First We would fain have Monsieur de Condom and all those Gentlemen which do sollicite us to a Reunion to discharge themselves of that Conceit That this the sole important Matter I grant that Reality with all its Attendants is the most important of our Controversies And its Attendants are Transubstantiation Adoration the Sacrifice the Retranchment of the Cup and Masses without Communicants Yet though they could satisfie us about them these Doctors may know that the rest would suffice to retain us in the Separation that we are in We will never worship Creatures nor Images under whatsoever Pretence It is not a business less Capital than that of the Eucharist We never will partake of a Worship composed of so many Ceremonies so opposite to the Spirit of Christian Religion We never will suffer the Veil of an Unknown Tongue to cover Divine Service We never will yield to a Discipline so relaxed as is that which settles Indulgences and will never receive that great Pomp of Human Satisfactions We never will acknowledge an Authority Superiour to that of Gods Word and will never receive any other Universal Head of the Church but Jesus Christ Let none be deceived all that appears Capital to us It is a great Illusion which the Doctors of the Roman Church offer continually to our People They suppose to them that Real Presence is the only important Affair that we have with them and that to the end they may conclude that the rest is nothing seeing this Point is tolerable according to us seeing we tolerate it in the Lutherans I therefore Advertize all that have a care of their Salvation to keep well their Guard on that side to repulse this Temptation holding for certain what I now declared That besides Real Presence we have many more things than needs to separate us from the Communion of the Roman Church Another thing whereof Monsieur de Condom shall permit me to Advertize him is That granting the importance of the Controversie of Reality he considers Reality in it self severed from its Attendants He passes with an unconceiveable swiftness Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Eucharist as if it were nothing He saith not a word of Masses without Communicants and regards the Sacrifice of the Mass and Retranchment of the Cup as Consequences which do rise necessarily from the Doctrine of Reality according to our own Confession So he makes his Fort of the Real Presence only and all this because he thinks to have found about it a great advantage in that we have done in regard to the Lutherans It is a Point wherein we shall give satisfaction anon to them that sincerely seek their Salvation and
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
as any thing can be so that their Adoration was referr'd to that God who had brought them out of Egypt whom they had design to adore under the Sign of that Calf In fine A Man that should take a Tree a Dog a Horse and should adore him referring his Worship to God in his Intention would not be guilty for his Worship would terminate in God We must know then that to the end our Adoration may terminate in God it suffices not that it be the Intention of him that adores but God must accept that Adoration Nothing terminates in God but what God is willing to receive It 's useless to have an Intention to serve God by certain Actions if those Actions be condemn'd of God they are against him and not for him Methinks I have read in the very Theology of those Gentlemen That the infinite Baseness of Sin arises from its establishing our last End different from God So every Sin so far as in it lies snatches away God from his Throne in taking away from him the Title of Ultimate End to give it the Creature and that is an infinite Crime But what shall we say to so many Actions Criminal that have God's Honour for their Object Of those Bloody Persecutions which have shed the Blood of the Faithful with the Thought That they did therein Service to God Of so many Superstitions which have been practised to the Honour of the Deity How can those Crimes be accused of setting up another End besides God seing they are done in honour to God It 's nevertheless certain that those Actions do not terminate in God and there is no other reason for it but that he abhors them and hath forbidden them They terminate then in the Vanity of their Imaginations and in the Illusions of the heart of those false Zealots and of that bad Devotion and do not reach God Semblably the Worship that Men render to the Creatures with Intention of referring it to God is carried out to the Creatures themselves because that God suffers it not to reach unto himself Here my Lord of Condom makes a Course into Antiquity and will draw his advantage from thence in that we acknowledge That Men began to invocate Saints about the end of the Fourth Century But that is a Proof and not an Explication I have not obliged my self to follow him through all I 'le only say That then they did not invocate Saints as they do at this day They did not pray to them in the Ordinary Service They constrained none thereto they did not build Temples to them they did not Sacrifice the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ to their honour Moreover we profess that we will only imitate the Apostles and their immediate Successors ARTICLE V. Of the Invocation of the Saints ALL that is general My Lord of Condom begins to descend to Particulars The Invocation and Worship of Saints is assuredly one of the things that doth most separate us from the Roman Church Mean while if he be believed the vain Terrors that we conceive therein proceed only from their having given an ill Turn to an Action the most innocent of all It 's nothing to see that Religious Worship that should be intirely given to God divided between Him and a thousand Creatures It 's nothing to hear Matins Masses Vespers filled with Litanies Songs and Praises that tend to the honour of those Creatures It 's nothing to see those Devoti who having almost wholly neglected the Name of God do cause to resound in their Exercises of Piety only the Names of the holy Mother of God and of other Saints It 's nothing to see the Kalendar crouded with an infinite number of Days dedicated to the honour of Saints whilst that God hath appropriated to himself but fifty or fifty two All Religion is to be for God all first Notions are for that Pietas erga Parentes Religio erga Deum said the Pagans themselves Yet it 's nothing to give Religious Worship to the Creatures and to divide Religion between God and them My Lord of Condom hath prevented that difficulty telling us That this Worship is called Religious only because it terminates in God But I think also we have Answered it sufficiently and have well proved That Worships forbidden of God cannot be referr'd to him Behold another Colour which is diffused thereon The Church in telling us That it 's useful to pray to Saints teaches us to pray to them with the same Spirit of Charity and according to those Orders of fraternal Charity which carries us on to demand the Succour of our Brethren living on the Earth We pray to them in the same Spirit that we pray to our Brethren that are on Earth to pray with us and for us to our Common Master in the Name of our Common Mediatour Jesus Christ Therefore according to the Catechism of the Council of Trent we use two Forms of Prayer very different seeing that whereas in praying to God the proper manner is to say Have mercy on us Hear us We are content to say to the Saints Pray for us There is nothing more specious That is reduced to Two things One That they invoke Saints but in saying to them Pray for us The other That this Prayer is put up with the same Spirit that it 's done to the Saints that are on Earth Those Gentlemen should know that though all that were true yet could not we be satisfied for in matter of Religion we would have nothing but what is founded on Precept or Example God hath not commanded us any where to invocate glorified Saints in the same Spirit that we pray our Brethren that are on Earth to pray for us Besides they being perfectly assured that Souls separate from their Bodies do not understand us Reason would forbid us loading our Service with useless Invocations But it 's a strange thing that they will still produce to us the same Facts with so much confidence without having answer'd the Proofs that we bring to the contrary To see that air of Assurance wherewith these Gentlemen say we say nothing else to the Saints but Pray for us would not one believe that there is nothing more true Yet let him but read the Books of Devotion of the Roman Church to be soon perswaded of the contrary Why then in the Hymn that begins Exultat Coelum laudibus c. do they say to the Apostles You that shut up Heavens by your Word and who open them at your Command loosen us of our Sins we pray you for it You that have power over H alth and Sickness of all heal us of our ill Manners and inspire Vertues into us In the Hymn which begins Lux Mundi beatissima do not they speak thus to the Virgin We pray you with a Suppliant Voice that you would please to be present with us Come sweet Lady deliver us out of all our Evils and bestow on us the Gifts of Heaven In
the preceding But in truth one cannot resolve to say over always the same things I will only say That one must not treat of it as of a small business nor imagine it to be no obstacle to Reunion The Worship of Images is a Practise of all most opposite to the Spirit of Christianism and the most contrary to the dignity of Man It 's to do great wrong to a Man to oblige him to humble himself before Wood and Stone which are so far below him Men should not flatter themselves It 's the great Scandal of the Jew he hath Images in abhorrence and when he looks on Christian Religion on that side he conceives a mortal aversion from it So we cannot imagine that to be a small Affair an Article which retards that great Work of the Conversion of the Jews without which the Church will never be perfect But say they will Men never conceive that it 's a great Wrong to compare or confound us with Idolatrous Pagans It 's not true that we confound the Roman Church with the Pagans Pagans adored the Images of wicked Men and even the Idols of Demons the Roman Church serves the Images of Saints and of the Friends of God viz. Apostles Martyrs Confessors Those Gentlemen will nevertheless permit us to tell them That they put Pagans in places wherein they have not been so to put an infinite distance between those Pagans and themselves about the Service of Images and suppose that Pagans have ador'd their Images as gods We should have a little better Opinion of Men who resembled us so much for ordinary use of Reason They regarded their Images but as Pictures and Representations of their gods If I could here take the leisure I would prove it with the clearest Evidence possible My Lord of Condom justifies his Church about Images by these Words of the Council of Trent Which forbid to believe any Divinity or Vertue for which it should be rever'd have any Grace demanded thereof or fasten ones Confidence thereon I am surprized to see that after this Decree they suffer Prayers addressed to Images and that Men should say to the Cross O Cress more bright than all the Stars famous in the World amiable to all Men holier than all things which alone hast been worthy to bear the Talent of the World Sweet Wood that bearest the Nails and the Sweet Weights save this present Assembly that comes hither to celebrate thy Praises Every one knows the solemn Prayer made to the Cross on great Feasts particularly at Easter in Holy Week God save thee our only Hope in this time of the Passion augment the Righteousness of the Faithful and grant Pardon to the Guilty I know well what they say That these Prayers are referr'd to Jesus Christ Crucified It is not the Sense of Thomas Aquinas the Prince of the School for he maintains That the Worship of Latria ought to be deferr'd to the Cross and that Worship to be distinct from that which is rendred to Jesus Christ He proves it by the Hymn O Crux ave spes c. he concludes That the Cross whereon Christ Jesus hath been Crucified ought to be worship'd with Worship of Latria both because of the representation and that it hath touch'd the Members of Jesus Christ As for the Images of the Cross of whatever matter they be they must be adored with Latria only of the first sort viz. with a Relative Latria He seems to have reason for we cannot conceive how they can have Intention to speak to Jesus Christ speaking to his Cross seeing they expresly distinguish Christ from his Cross and that they say to it Arbor decora fulgida c. Thou art a fair and bright Tree adorn'd with the Kings Purple chosen cut of a precious Stock to touch his Holy Members I find that very good that the Council of Trent hath declared That there is no virtue at all within the Image but I cannot conceive how after that they have left in the Roman Pontifical Prayers which necessarily suppose that there is a Sanctifying virtue in the Images of the Cross For Example this which the Bishop utters in blessing a new Cross Take then this Cross in thy hands wherewith thou didst formerly embrace it and by the Sanctity of that sanctifie this as by that the World hath been purg'd of his Sins so the Souls of thy Servants that offer thee this Cross by its Merit may be preserv'd from all Sin After this Decree of the Council of Trent I know not why they tolerate the use of Agnus Dei whereto they attribute Virtue of preserving from the Crafts of the Devil and from the the Frauds of the Evil Spirits to keep from Shipwrack to put under shelter from all Adversity to preserve from the Pest from corrupt Air the Falling-sickness Storm Fires Peril in Childbirth and from all Iniquity I know not why they go in Pilgrimage to an Image of our Lady more than to another For in fine If Images have no other use than to recall the Memory of the Originals they are all alike If the Spirit of the Council of Trent was opposite to these Devotions why were they not retrench'd At the most will they say You cannot accuse the Church but of Negligence and Toleration but you cannot oppose to the Council of Trent any thing that may be of equal Authority I oppose thereto Books little less authorized than it as the Pontifical and Roman Ceremonial made by the Pope's Order approved and received by all the Roman Church review'd several times since the Council of Trent I oppose thereto the general and constant practise of all the Bishops even of the most moderate There is none of them that would bless a Cross in other Terms than those which are prescribed by the Pontifical I oppose thereto the practice of the whole Roman Church for if there be in France and elsewhere some honest persons who have purer Sentiments and which are disingaged from Popular Errours they make no Number in comparison of the People of Italy Spain Germany and France it self who are in this Practise My Lord of Condom about this matter goes farther than one could have believed He would fain perswade us that in the Roman Church they do not serve Images at all Our Intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image We use Images but to lift up our Spirit towards Heaven That is equivocal and they say That in Manuscript Copies of this Work which have ran through Mens hands long before it was printed my Lord of Condom spoke more strongly but having seen the Success of his Book and seeing himself upheld by so great Approbation he is return'd thither he goes freely through and makes the Author of the Advertisement say We serve not Images God forbid but we serve our selves of Images to raise us up to the Originals These
a true Sacrament as to the Sign I Answer That it is a true Sacrament as to the Thing signified It is certain that to speak exactly he doth not take with his Mouth the Sacrament of Jesus Christ for this Sacrament is composed of Two parts and he receives but One But he receives Jesus Christ signified by the Sacrament and receives as much of Graces as they that Communicate of the Sacrament it self Why Because the Sacrament is entirely presented to him because he receives it in his desire and heart and because only an insuperable Impossibility hinders him from communicating of the Sign Suppose we that a Man is found which hath the same aversion for the Bread as for the Wine that never was it may be found but it is not impossible This Man will come to the Lords Table he will take with his hand the one and the other Sign he 'l bring them near to his Mouth but he will return them not being able to pass further What doth that Man Doth he take a true Sacrament Not at all he takes not the Sacrament he recelves the Spiritual things presented under the Sacrament that is Grace But to what purpose doth he come near the Table to receive nothing there For he might have received Grace without stirring from home He comes to make unto God a solemn Protestation that his Impotency is the only cause that hinders him from partaking of the Signs that he thirsts after his Grace that he desires to have part in the efficacy of the Sacrament and to shew to all the Faithful that he doth not deprive himself of those Sacred Signs out of contempt of Religion If those Doctours do not relish this Theology I beseech them to hear St Bernard that tells them It is not Privation of the Sacrament that damns but Contempt I conjure them to consult all the Theologues of their School and examine what they say of Baptism of Vow or the Vow of Baptism There is none but saith That he who desires sincerely and ardently to receive Baptism and dies without partaking of the Sign doth nevertheless receive the Efficacy and all the Virtue of Baptism ARTICLE XIV Of Holy Scripture WE have upon this Article very important Controversies with the Roman Church of the Perfection of Scripture of its Obscurity of its Authority also touching the Utility and Necessity of Reading the said Holy Scripture of the Soveraign Judge of Controversies and of Traditions Monsieur de Condom passes almost all these under Silence and wraps it up in few Words except the Question of its Authority which he Treats of a little more largely I have no design neither to make here large Common places upon these Controversies Volumes have been sufficiently written on both sides to compose great Libraries I will only say That all the dexterity of Monsieur de Condom will never make us to pass this for a thing of small importance We shall never relish that any should make it their Task to speak ill of Holy Scripture It is a wicked Character and a bad Prejudice for these Doctours Cause When Men speak ill of their Judge and that they seek for Means of Recusation against him it is a Proof that they do not believe him favourable to their Interest If the Roman Church believed the Scripture to be on their side they would not seek out so many Means to make her lose her Credit with the People It is a thing that could never be believed if we did not see it That Christians should busie themselves to prove that the Book which includes the Doctrine that saves them from Hell is an imperfect and mutilate Book gnawed by the Teeth of Time depraved and corrupted by the Jews and by the Hereticks that it contains but a little part of the Doctrine of the Church that they must add thereto the Help of Traditions That it is an an Obscure Book that Men cannot understand it without the help of the Church that God hath filled it with Rocks and Shelfs that proud Spirits might be wracked thereon That it is a Leaden Rule which Men turn what way they please that Hereticks may easily abuse it to fight against the Truth that we find not Light enough therein to dissipate the Darkness of Errour that it is a Labyrinth wherein Men are necessarily lost when they are not conducted that it hath no Authority in regard to us without the Testimony of the Church that it hath not Characters of Divinity sufficient to prove it self that it cannot explain it self by clear Places of what it saith in obscure Passages that without the Authority of the Church we should be no more obliged to believe it to be Divine than any other Book that the Lecture of this Book is dangerous that one must extreamly distinguish the Persons to whom the Reading thereof should be permitted that Versions in the Vulgar Tongue cannot appear without peril that the People should not have liberty of handling these Sacred Books They would have us to hear all these things patiently and that we should keep Silence thereat But that cannot be We should be the most base and the most ungrateful of all Men if we should abandon the Defence of a Book to which alone we are beholding next to God for our Eternal Salvation They will not fail to tell us that we are Calumniators and they speak not with that contempt of the Holy Scripture They will bring us the Testimonies of some particular Persons of the latter days which have spoken of it with grand Eloges and Praises And I could relate the Words of other particulars and would bring an hundred for one which speak thereof in the Terms which I expressed just now If Monsieur de Cedeau Bishop of Grass if the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have spoken of this Scripture with the Respect due thereto that hath not been regarded as their fair side and best Character And all the World knows the Violent Persecutions whereto some have been exposed because of that Monsieur de Condom may say what he pleases in favour of Tradition but we maintain That it is an opening of the Door to all the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship There is none so strange and so opposite to the Spirit of Christianism that may not enter into the Church under this Name of Tradition Sad Experience teaches us enough thereof It is this Word that filled with Images the Temples of Christians to the great Scandal of those who are jealous of the Purity of Worship It is that which introduced into Religion the Service of Creatures Invocation of Saints the Worship of the Holy Virgin Pilgrimaget Adoration of Relicks and so many other such like things If the Roman Church were reduced to defend her self only by Scripture she should soon be driven to forsake the most part of her Worship and of her Devotions But where Scripture fails her Tradition is an obscure Spring entangled and Profound which furnishes with all