again to examine those Articles once so resolved on but are bound humbly to receive her Decisions In this we shall follow the example of St. Paul and Silas who carried this first Sentence of the Apostles to the Faithful and were so far from permitting a new Discussion of what had been decided that on the contrary They went from place to place Acts 16.4 teaching them to observe the Ordinances of the Apostles Thus it is the Children of God acquiess in the Judgment of the Church believing that from her Mouth they hear the Oracle of the Holy Ghost and upon account of this belief it is that after having said in our Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost we add immediately The Holy Catholic Church by which we oblige our selves to acknowledg an infallible and perpetual verity in the universal Church because this very Church which we believe existent in all Ages would cease to be the Church if she ceased to teach the truth revealed by God So that those who apprehend least she should abuse her Power to establish a Lye have no Faith in him by whom she is governed And if our Adversaries would but look upon these things in a more mild and candid manner they would be obliged to acknowledg the Catholic Church is so far from making her self Mistress of her Faith as they have accused her that on the contrary she has done what she could to bind and deprive herself of all the means of Innovation seeing she not only submits herself to the Holy Scriptures but to the end she might for ever banish all arbitrary Interpretations which make Mens Imaginations pass for Scripture she has obliged herself to interpret them in what relates to Faith and Manners Conc. Trid. Sess 14. according to the sence of the Holy Fathers from which she prosesseth never to depart declaring in all her Councils and in all the Professions of Faith she has published that she does not receive any Doctrine which is not conformable to the Tradition of all preceding Ages Moreover if our Adversaries consult their Consciences they will find the name of the Church has more Authority over them than they dare avouch in their disputes and I do not think there is any one Prudent Man amongst them who finding himself the only Person of a Perswasion tho it appeared to him never so Evident but would abhor that Singularity so true it is that Men have need in these matters to be supported in their Tenets by the Authority of some Society that is of the same opinion with them And for this reason God who created us and who knows what is most proper for us hath ordained for our Good that all Particulars should be subject to the Authority of his Church which of all other Authorities is without doubt the best Established In effect it is established not only by that Testimony which God himself gives of it in the Holy Scriptures but also by the marks of his divine Protection which are no less visible in the inviolable and perpetual subsistence of it than in its miraculous Establishment SECT XX. The Sentiments of those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion concerning the Authority of the Church THIS Supream Authority of the Church is so necessary to regulate the differences which arise in matters of Faith and about the Sense of Scripture that our Adversaries themselves after having decryed it as an unsupportable Tyranny have been at last obliged to establish it amongst themselves When those who are called Independents declared openly that each one of the Faithful ought to follow the light of his own Conscience without submitting his Judgment to the Authority of any Body or Ecclesiastical Assembly and upon this Ground refused to submit toany Synods That of Charenton held 1644. censured this Doctrine upon the same Reasons and for the same Inconveniencies for which we reject it This Synod observes in the first place that this Error of the Independents consists in this that they teach Every Church ought to be governed by her proper Laws without a dependance upon any Person in Ecclesiastical Matters and without any Obligation to acknowledg the Authority of Conferences and Synods for her regulation and conduct After which this Synod determines that this Sect is a prejudicial to the State as to the Church that it opens a door to all sorts of Irregularities and Extravagancies that it takes away all the means of applying any remedy to it and that if it took place there might be as many Religions framed as Parishes or particular Assemblies These last words shew it is principally in matters of Faith this Synod would establish a Dependance seeing the greatest Inconvenience into which it observes the faithful would fall by an Independence is that there might chance to be as many Religions formed as Parishes Every Church then according to the Doctrine of this Synod and much more every private Person must necessarily depend in what concerns matters of Faith upon some other superior Authority which resides in some Assembly or in some Body to which Authority all the Faithful submit their Judgments For the Independents do not refuse to submit to the Word of God according as they think it ought to be understood nor to accept the decisions of Synods when after having examined them they judg them reasonable What they refuse to do is to submit their Judgments to that of any Assembly for its sake because our Adversaries have taught them that every Assembly even that of the Universal Church is a Society of men subject to Error and to which by consequence a Christian ought not to submit his Judgment that submission being only due to God From this pretention of the Independents it is those inconveniences follow which the Synod of Charenton so well observed For let a man make what Profession he pleaseth to submit himself to the word of God if every one think he has a right to interpret it according to his own Sense and against the Tenets of the Church declared in her last Sentence this pretention will open a door to all sorts of Extravagancies it will take away all the means of applying a remedy because the decision of the Church is not a remedy to those who think themselves not obliged to submit to it in fine it gives way to the framing as many Religions not only as there are Parishes but also as there are Persons To avoid these inconveniencies from whence the ruin of Christianity would follow the Synod of Charenton finds her self obliged to establish a Dependence in Ecclesiastical matters and that even in Points of Faith but this dependence will never hinder those pernicious consequences which they desired to prevent if they do not with us establish this Maxim that every particular Church and much more every particular person amongst the faithful ought to believe themselves obliged to submit their private judgment to the Authority of the Church Thus we see in the 5th chapter of
we have spoken come not from any defect in the payment but from a certain order which he has established to retain us in a saving discipline by just apprehensions But if they also tell us we believe we can of our own selves satisfy for some part of the pain due to our sins we can with confidence assure them the contrary appears by the maxims we have established Which maxims make it clearly appear that our Salvation is no other but a work of Mercy and Grace that what we do by the Grace of God is no less his work then what he dos alone by his absolute power and lastly that what we give to him appertains no less to him that what he gives to us To which we must add that what we call Satisfaction following the Example of the primitive Church is after all nothing but the application of the infinite satisfaction of JESVS CHRIST This very consideration ought to appease those who are offended when we tell them that God is so well pleased with fraternal charity and the communion of Saints that he frequently also accepts of those Satisfactions which we offer up one for another It seems these men do not conceive how much all we are belongs to God nor how all the favours which his Goodness makes him have for the faithful the members of JESVS CHRIST are necessarily referred to this divine head But certainly those who have read and considered how God himself inspires his servants with a desire to afflict themselves with fasting hair-cloth and ashes not only for their own sins but also for the sins of all the people will not be astonished if we say that being touched with the delight he has to gratify his friends he mercifully accepts of the humble sacrifice of their voluntary mortifications in abatement of those chastisements which he prepared for his people which shows that being satisfied by these he renders himself more mild towards the others by this means honouring his Son JESVS CHRIST in the communion of his members and in the holy society of his mystical body SECT IX The Sacraments THE Order of Doctrine requires that we now speak of the Sacraments by which the merits of JESVS CHRIST are applyed to us Seeing the disputes we have concerning them if we except the Eucharist are not so hot as the others we will in the first place clear in short the cheifest difficuties which are raised concerning the other and reserve the Eucharist which is the most important of all the rest till the last The Sacraments of the new Covenant are not sacred signs only which represent Grace nor seals which confirm it to us but the Instruments of the Holy Ghost which serve to apply it to us and which confer it upon us by vertue of the words which are pronounced and the exteriour action which is performed upon condition that we put not not any Impediment by our not being rightly disposed Whilst God annexes so great Grace to exteriour signs which have not of their own nature any proportion with so admirable an effect he shows us clearly that besides all we can do interiourly of our solves by our good dispositions there must necessarily intervene before we can be justified a special operation of the Holy Ghost and a peculiar application of the merit of our Saviour which is exhibited to us by the Sacraments So that this Doctrine cannot be rejected without injuring the merits of JESVS CHRIST and the operation of his divine power in our regeneration We acknowledg seven sacred signs or Ceremonies established by JESVS CHRIST as the ordinary means for the Sanctification and perfection of the new man Their divine institution appears in the holy Scripture either by the express words of JESVS CHRIST who established them or by the Grace which according to the same Scripture is annexed to them and necessarily shows a divine institution Baptism Seeing little Children cannot supply the want of Baptism by acts of Faith Hope and Charity nor by the vow to receive this Sacrament we believe that if they do not really receive it they do not in any manner partake of the Grace of redemption and therefore dying in Adam they have not any part in JESVS CHRIST It is good to observe here that the Lutherans believe with the Catholic Church the absolute necessity of Baptism and are astonished with her that such a truth should be denied which never any one before Calvin durst openly call in question it was so firmly rooted in the minds of all the faithful Nevertheless the Pretended Reform'd are not apprehensive voluntarily to let their Children dye like the Children of Infidels without bearing any mark of Christianity and without receiving any grace if their deaths should chance to prevent the day of their assembly Confirmation The Imposition of hands practised by the Holy Apostles to confirm the Faithful against Persecutions having its principal effect in the interiour descent of the Holy Ghost Act. 8.15.17 and the infusion of his gifts it ought not to have been rejected by our adversaries under pretence that the Holy Ghost descends now no more visibly upon us Thus all Christian Churches since the Apostles times have religiously retained it making use also of Holy Chrism to shew the vertue of this Sacrament by a more express representation of the interiour unction of the Holy Ghost Penance and Sacramental Confession We believe that JESVS CHRIST has been pleased those who have submitted themselves to the Authority of the Church by Baptism and who have since violated the laws of the Gospel should come and submit themselves to the Judgment of the same Church in the Tribunal of Penance Math. 18.18 John 20.23 where she exercises the power which is given her of remitting and retaining sins The terms of that commission which is given to the Ministers of the Church to absolve from sin are so general they cannot without temerity be restrained to publick sins and seeing when they pronounce that absolution in the name of JESVS CHRIST they only follow the express terms of this Commission the sentence is looked upon as rendred by JESVS CHRIST himself by whom they are established Judges It is this invisible High Priest who interiourly absolves the Penitent whilst the Priest exteriourly exercises the function This Penitential Court of Judicature being so necessary a curb to liberty a source so fruitful of wise admonitions so sensible a consolation for souls afflicted for their Sins when their absolution is not only declared in general terms as it is practised by the Ministers but when they are in reality absolved by the authority of JESVS CHRIST after a particular examination and knowledg of the Case we cannot believe that our adversaries can look upon so many benefits without regretting their loss and without being somewhat ashamed of a Reformation which has cast off so saving and so holy a practise Extream Vnction The Holy Ghost having according to the testimony of St. James
FOR VS No matter for that the Ministers will never believe it They must then raise out of their Catechism and their Confession of Faith these accusations of Idolatry with which they are filled they must retrench in their Sermons so many bloody Invectives which have no other Grounds and this they cannot resolve of and let us make what Declarations we can of our Minds they will neither believe the Council not its Catechism nor our Confession of Faith nor the Bishops nor the Pope himself It is not necessary to repeat here what is said in the Exposition as to other objections Exp. p. 8. and principally as to that where they accuse the Church of attributing to Saints a divine Knowledge and Power whilst she teaches they can neither know nor do any thing of themselves But the accusation of Idolatry has another Foundation which they accuse M. de Condom to have palliated as well as the others And it is the Article concerning Images An. Av. p. 24. where nevertheless he has searched no other Palliations but to expose faithfully the meaning of the Church Rep. p. 65. There needs no more than this to make the very Suspition of Idolatry to vanish according to the Principles of the Pretended Reform'd and they need only in this compare the Doctrine of their own Catechism with that of the Council of Trent represented in the Exposition Their Catechism upon this Commandment Dim 23. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image Asks whether God forbids the making of any Image And the answer is No but that God forbids only the making of any Image whereby to represent God or to adore it Behold the two things which they think forbidden in this Precept of the Decalogue It may be they will do us the Justice to believe we do not pretend to represent God and that if they see in some Pictures God the Father Painted in that form which he was pleased so often to appear in to his Prophets we pretend no more to derogate from his Invisibile and Spiritual Nature than he himself when he exhibited himself under that form The Council explicates sufficiently to them upon this account Sess 25. that we pretend not thereby to represent or express the Divinity or to give it any Colours and I think I should do them an injury in proceeding to a clearer Proof Let us pass to the second part of their Doctrine and let us learn from their Catechisms what form of Adoration is condemned To Prostrate ones self says the Answer before an Image to pray to it to how the Knee before it or shew some other sign of reverence as if God exhibited himself there to us This is in effect the Errour of the Gentiles and the proper Character of Idolatry But they who believe Expos p. 9 10 11. with the Council That Images have neither Divinity nor Vertue in them for which they ought to be reverenced and who place all the benefit in their recalling the Originals to our remembrance do not believe that God in them exhibits himself to them It is not therefore Idolatry by the consent of the Pretended Reform'd and according to the proper Definition of their Catechism The Anonymus seems to have been sensible of this Truth in that place where objecting this Commandment of the Decalogue he says P. 67. that God forbids to make Images and to worship them He is in the right The words of the Precept are express and the Images there spoken of are those which are forbidden to to be made as well as to be worshiped That is to say according to the explication of his Catechism those which are made to represent God and those which are made to show him present and which are worshipped with the same intention as full of his Divinity We neither make nor suffer any of this nature We do not worship Images God forbid but we make use of Images to put us in mind of the Originals Our Council so odious to the pretended Reform'd Church teaches us no other use of them Is this then enough to make them say as that Church doth in her own Confession of Faith that all sorts of Idolatry are in vogue in the Roman Church Art 28. Is it for this that her Discipline calls us Idolaters and our Religion Idolatry Disc art 11.13 Art 5.2 Without doubt they represent to themselves other things than our Doctrine when they give us the name of Gentiles They believe we follow their abominable Errors and that we believe as they did that God shews himself to us in those Images Had it not been for these mortal Prejudices had it not been for Ideas which they frame to themselves of the sentiments of the Church Christians could never have imagined it so detestable a crime to kiss the Cross in remembrance of him who bore our Iniquities upon the wood nor that so simple and natural a demonstration of those sentiments of tenderness which that Pious Object excites in our hearts ought to make us regarded as if we Adored Baal or the Golden Galves of Samaria During this strange preocupation of the Pretended Reform'd this Treatise of the Exposition might well appear to them which really in effect it did a Book full of Artifice which did nothing but extenuate the Sentiments of Catholicks But now when they see clearly all the Artifice of this Book is to separate the Doctrines which they have imputed to the Church from those which she professes that all the mitigations he makes in Doctrine is that he has taken off that hidious Masque which the Ministers had put upon it let them confess this Church was not worthy of so much horror as they had for her and that at least she deserves to be heard Neither the Pope nor the Sea Apostolick ought to be hereafter accused of diminshing that adoration which is due to God nor that confidence which a Christian ought to establish in his sole goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ since they see without further search this Treatise of the Exposition which is made only to explicate these two Truths has received at Rome and from the Pope himself so Authentick an Approbation After this they will certainly be ashamed of that Title which they give the Pope No one can think on it without horrour nor hear without astonishment that the Pretended Reform'd who boast to follow Scripture word for word when the Apostle St. John who has alone named Antichrist tells us three or four times that Antichrist is he who denies that JESVS CHRIST is come in flesh 2. Joh. 1.7 1 Joh. 2.22.4.3 dare so much as think that he who teaches so fully the Mystery of JESVS CHRIST that is to say his Divinity his Incarnation the superbundance of his Merits the necessity of his Grace and that absolute confidence we must have in it should nevertheless be that Antichrist described by the Apostle But it is