Zeal with Violence So that in the Eyes of Flesh the true faithful Ones do appear Luke-warm and the Euemies of Truth do pass for true Zealots When Human Passions do mingle themselves in those Sentiments of Hearts called Religion there is no Excess that they are not capable of In respect of other Objects in the midst of their greatest Transports they do reproach themselves secretly which stops their fury and steal away some part of their Impetuousness and chiefly when they are allay'd and consider in cold blood their Conduct past they do often accuse their own selves But contrarily here Passions do sollicite and animate themselves they make Merit of their Violence and believe that God and his Church are concern'd in their Justification because they imagine that they have labour'd for the Truth This is one of the Reasons why often Men believe that they see but little Zeal in the true Church while there is so much Fire in the Conduct of Them that endeavour her Ruine But we must needs grant that there is something more The Moderation of the Faithful doth not alway proceed from that Sweet Spirit which is the very Genius of the Gospel It comes often from the coldness of their Zeal God permits it to oblige us to adore in Silence the Mysteries of his Conduct and to confound at the same time the Pride of Mans heart We have much less Love for the Truth than the World and the Devil have of Hatred against it And whilst we act in the Establishment of Religion by a Principle of Self-love we have quite another kind of Ardor than when we have no other prospect than that of the Glory of God The Church doth easily relent the fervour of the Zeal which seeks the Conversion of Others doth not last long It is so hard a thing to seek for Salvation that Men imagine they do enough to labour for their own without charging themselves with the Care of Others And we easily fall into those unhappy Thoughts That God is good enough to do his own Business that he will have a care of his own Interest and that he will not want Means to Convert them whom he hath destined to eternal Salvation Whereas false Zeal doth hold it self up doth persevere and finds it self often more capable to endure greater Labours than the true Devotion It is a thing that confounds us I grant it 's one of the great Temptations which good Souls are to overcome But truly it 's a Thing whereof it 's impossible to deny the Truth if we have any thing of good Faith or Probity Our Lord Jesus Christ himself doth teach us that the Pharisees and the false Doctors of Judaism did compass Sea and Land to make a Proselyte and all their labours did conclude to render Him a Son of Hell likes themselves All those things do make me conclude That the Zeal to make Conversions is not always a certain Sign that the Truth is in that Party It is a favourable Prejudice but after all it 's but a Prejudice and we should not suffer our selves to be conducted by those kinds of Lights which are often deceitful We must be permitted to examine If the Zeal of Religion which causes so many Emotions be a Divine fire or a Passion meerly Humane Now we cannot better know the Nature of that Zeal which seeks for Conversions than by the Means which it employs for it 's an indubitable Principle That true Piety never doth any ill that good may come thereof She seeks the Salvation of Men but she seeks it by ways that are just lawful and rational I. First It is certain that true Zeal doth never employ for Conversion the Sword Fire Violence and Torments Those are ill Commentators of the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ that make him to say Compel them to come in that is to say Constrain them by Violence and by the fear of Death to enter into the Church which is the Wedding Room The Lord cannot suffer in that Wedding Room any but such as are clad with the Wedding Garment and which have a true and solid Piety But those People which are brought into the Church by Fear and Threatnings are Hypocrites and Impious Persons which disrobe their Impiety to the sight of Men Rebels which feign their Submission meditate a Revolt and which always bear the heart of an Enemy The Church hath suffered many Persecutions but never did execute any upon others She overcame Paganism as Paganism had overcome her before but she never did retaliate it She did not use the Authority of Constantine and Theodosius to defile the Temples of the False gods with the Blood of their Worshippers as the Pagans had employ'd the Swords of Nero's Maximius Decius and Diocletian's to bathe the Earth with the Blood of Christians One must be very ignorant in the History of the Church not to know that in all the Contests She had with the Arrians Eutychians and other Hereticks She used only Exhortations Reasons Councils and other such like Arms. Contrarily the Hereticks have carried on their Fury against the living Temples of the Holy Ghost they have employed Sword and Fire and established themselves by the help of the Horrour and of the fear of Death which their Arms did cast into Mens Souls I know not if there be at this day in the Church of Rome any honest People that do not behold those horrid Tragedies which have shed so much Blood in the Ages past but as so many Accesses of Fury and a phrentick Fever during which Christianity arm'd against it self made it a pleasure and a duty to shed its own Blood and thrust the cruel Sword into its own Bowels If mens Souls be to be brought to Christ Jesus by Fear it must be by the fear of Hell and by the dread of Gods Judgments Knowing saith St. Paul the Terrour of the Lord we perswade men to the Faith 2 Cor. 5. II. Hope is also one of the Ways whereby the Souls of Men are more strongly drawn But to bring Men to Jesus Christ no other Hope is to be given them but that which the Lord himself gives them One must promise them exactly what he hath himself promised them that is Eternal life these are the Rewards of Heaven Whosoever shall forsake Father Mother Children Wife goods or house he shall receive an hundred fold in eternal life I find not that he hath presented any other Objects to Men to perswade them to come to him All the World agrees that nothing is more base than to betray the Truth and ones own Conscience for Interest Buy the Truth and sell it not saith the Wise man I speak not only of those Truths which are of the highest import and whereon depends Salvation I speak of Truth in general It 's one of the richest Presents of Heaven seeing it is to the Soul what Light is to the World and to renounce it for a base Interest it 's to despise
true that these things may be called Consquences and that we may be justified of that Accusation by denying them That is clear by this Example If one divide the Authority of the Prince Soveraign among his Subjects without his Permission I maintain That injury is done to him by that very thing and that one should not be received to say I deny I do injury to my Soveraign in giving one part of his Soveraign Authority to Others That 's a Consequence which I disown The Injury consists in the Act it self that is done and not in a Consequence which arises from the Action So to give a new Sacrifice new Intercessours and new Objects of a Religious Worship it 's directly to offend God the only Object of Religion It 's to oppose the Unity and Perfection of the Christian Sacrifice It 's to do injury to the only Intercessour and that by the very Actions which are done and not by Consequences which arise from those Actions But at least will they say You are obliged to grant that the most part of the Errours of the Roman Church are not Capital Thereupon I say Three things First That it 's enough if there be two or three Capital Errours and even One alone in a Religion to render intolerable that whith otherwise might have been tolerable The Second thing that I say is that the Errours which every one being apart might have been tolerated if they were alone cannot be born with when they are in a great Number A Life that should be wholly charged with those Sins which the Roman Church calls Venial and that should have no good Work at all would undoubtedly lead to Eternal death although every one of those Sins taken apart would not destroy Grace A Religion that should gather an infinite number of Practises of Superstitions and Errours whereof none were Capital could not be suffered nevertheless for it is a Capital Affair to bury the Truth in so great a number of Errours In fine I say that the Roman Church hath rendred Capital those of her Errours that would not otherwise be such since she hath made Articles of Faith of them She obliges under pain of Anathema that is to say Pain of Eternal damnation to believe that the Books of Maccabees are Canonical that Concupiscence after Baptism is no more Sin that the involuntary Motions of that Concupiscence are not Sins that Baptism is of an absolute necessity that Order is a true Sacrament that Marriage is not dissolved by Adultery and an hundred things of this Nature If she had received those Opinions without obliging others to receive them they might have been tolerated but as soon as she hath made them Articles of Faith they become intolerable For it 's a mortal Sin to receive Errours as Verities Fundamental It 's a horrid Crime to condemn to Hell Men that have but light Errours Now the Roman Church by her Anathema's obliges me to damn those who have but light Errours In fine It 's a black baseness to make Profession by Oath to believe as Capital Verities and necessary Ones such Opinions as we know to be Errours And that is it the Roman Church would oblige us to In a word I think to Reason justly in Reasoning thus All the Articles of Faith are Fundamental Points because they cannot be rejected without being Anathema's The Roman Church of those things which we might have considered as light Errours hath made Articles of Faith which may not be rejected without a direful Anathema Then hath the Roman Church in that regard those Opinions that could have pass'd for being of little importance Fundamental Points and in our regard Capital Errours And from thence it seems to me to be clear that after the decisions of the Council of Trent all Reconciliation is impossible with the Roman Church Because the Question is no more of tolerating light Errours but to believe them and make profession thereof and of damning all those that believe them not and that is it which an honest Man and a Christian cannot do ARTICLE IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him BEhold the Second Principle of that Union which my Lord of Condom propounds it 's That the Religious Worship in the Pag. 17. Church of Rome terminates in God If the Honour she gives to the Holy Virgin and the Saints may be called Religious it 's because it relates necessarily to God He would conclude thence That in retaining our Principle that every Religious Honour is to be related to God we can without hurt to our Conscience partake of the Worship of the Roman Church seeing that she teaches That every Religionâ— Worship is to be referr'd to God as to its necessary End 1. I wish that my Lord of Condom had cited to us some Text of the Council of Trent which might assure us That all Religious Worship is terminated in God I see there that we must invoke Saints because they reign with Jesus Christ and because they intercede for us c. I read there no more I conceive there is a little difference between invoking a Saint for reference to God and terminate a Religious Worship to God It 's true that the Roman Chuch invokes Saints by respect to God that is to say because they are the Saints of God because they govern under God because they have merited with God because they intercede before God for Men. If those Saints should have no relation to God no doubt Men would not serve them But is not this to impose visibly upon the World to say That because of that all Religious Worship is terminated in God Because that a Favourite hath the Princes Ear that he disposes of the places of the State under his Authority that he obtains of him what he will he is courted a thousand Homages are done to him do those Honours terminate in the Prince because of that Is he bound to own them and regard them as if done to himself A Man that would say such a thing would not he render himself ridiculous Who ever heard that Worship doth not terminate in that Person which is the immediate Object thereof Those Gentlemen conceive that they have right to say what they please and that we are bound to believe them on their Word 2. But though it should be the Intention of those that invoke Saints to terminate all their Worship in God would that Intention suffice to effect the thing If it were so there would never have been any Idolaters that is to say Persons that had adored Images or Idols For there was never any Religion so brutish as to terminate their Worship upon Brass or Wood Silver or Gold whereof the Image is compounded If any Person have done it it must not be imputed to the Religion Those Idolaters referr'd their Worship to the Deity which was represented by the Idol The Israelites had not offended God in the Worship of the Golden Calf for it 's as certain
are things that will surprize and which would never have been expected It 's good to observe that the Advertisement was made after the Approbations One may say with some assurance that Italy would not have suffered this Word to pass However it be my Lord of Condom may bless himself here that he hath made an Example He is the first that hath dared to write that and happily that hath dared to say it At least I may assure never to have read it in any nor to have heard it from any person though we see daily some of the most moderate Doctors of the Roman Church It 's true that most of these Gentlemen cannot endure to be accused of Adoring Images Thereupon we tell them You are then more scrupulous than the most Catholick Doctors who say That all Catholicks are agreed against Iconomacks That some Worship and Adoration is to be rendred to Images but that there are diversities of Opinions among them about the manner and nature of that Adoration That though it be true That the Image is not to be ador'd but because of the Original yet must it be adored in it self and properly without adoring the Original That the Images of the Cross are to be adored with Adoration of relative Latria That the Image may be ador'd with that Adoration wherewith its Original is ador'd properly in truth but by accicident that we regard the Image as conjoyned to the Original which is ador'd and that because of that one may adore it by Accident Behold already great Names in the Margin and one might without hyperbole add an hundred thereto But we will go on and say You are more scrupulous than the Writers of Port-Royal who are not accused to be Superstitious nor excessively Catholick They make one of their Devouts speak thus I kept my Bed for seven days since that time except that I rose thrice a day to go and adore the Crucifix You are more Catholick than the Popes themselves and than the Books whereof they are the Authors More than the Roman Pontifical which in the Chapter of the Benediction of a new Cross since that the Bishop bending his knees before that Cross adores it devoutly and kisses it More than the Missal which on Holy Friday saith of the Cross Come and let 's worship it In fine we add that this Scruple of not being willing to use this Word of Adoring in speaking of the Service of Images is a refined way unknown to the Councils which have establish'd this Service for the Second of Nice saith clearly by the Mouth of Tarasius That all those that will reverence Images and yet refuse Adoration to them are accused of Hypocrisie by the Holy Father viz. by Anastasius whose Testimony he was just then relating This Council in gross writing to the Emperours Constantine and Irene speaks thus to them We believe c. that Men must adore and salute the venerable Images of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Virgin pure Mother of God and also of the glorious Angels and of all the Saints And if any one be of another Spirit and questions whether Men must adore the holy Images this holy and venerable Coucil doth Anathematize him We see some Authors who being convinced sufficiently that since 800 or 900 years no question hath been made of using this term of Adoring to express the Worship given to Images are willing yet to use it but they distinguish and assure us That they do not worship Images as gods It 's that we willingly believe Happily among the Vulgar are found some stupid and simple Souls that do not well distinguish the Worship given to the Image from that which is to be rendred to God We cannot forbear saying That they who have established this Service of Images shall answer it to God for these Mistakes of the Vulgar But however we impute it not to the Roman Church that they worship Images as gods And I know not whether there ever were any People in the World to whom it may be attributed for I can hardly believe that there hath been any Religion brutish enough to give Divinity to Images of Wood Stone or Mettal These are the Colours that Men have hitherto diffused upon this Worship to render it tolerable to us We serve Images by relation to Originals said they We well know that Figures of Wood Stone and Mettal have no Divinity at all and are in no way worthy to be served What Service we give them is because of Jesus Christ the Holy Virgin and other Saints which they represent My Lord of Condom speaks not thus We serve not Images saith he God forbid You are not then of the Religion of the Second Council of Nice nor of that of the Council of Trent which confirms what was defined by the Decrees of Councils and particularly of the Second Council of Nice against those that opposed Images which saith expresly That Men must have in the Churches the Images of Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mother of God and of other Saints and render to them the honour and Veneration due Which adds in speaking of the said Images We kiss them we salute them we prostrate our selves before them All that is not to serve Images if we believe my Lord of Condom We see every day before our eyes that Images are cloath'd anew on Feast-days that some are carried in Pomp that Men prostrate themselves before them that they kiss them that they burn to their honour both Incense and Torches that they place them on Altars and after all that they tell us with an air of Assurance We serve not Images God forbid God be witness of the Justice of our Complaint and of the sincerity of this Justification My Lod of Condom saith but one word of Relicks I will not say much more He may turn this Worship of Relicks as pleases him but he shall never make us relish the adoring of Ashes Bones Linnens Wood and such other things I would not pretend to be nicely quarrell'd about that word of Adoring I use it in the same sense that the Gentlemen of Port-Royal who are exact enough in the choice of Terms They say in justifying the Religious Nuns That my Lord Bishop of Toul hath thought good they should follow the Devotion of the People and of many Persons of Condition which came and are still coming to adore this Holy Thorn They relate of a Religious of Maisen Dieu at Vernon That she would be carried to Port-Royal to adore that Holy Thorn And of one Madam Durand That she was cured of a Vomiting which had troubled her for Two years Ten months after having adored and kissed the Holy Thorn They conclude at last It suffices to say That if God did not make his help to be felt or hoped there are no Human Considerations that could carry so many Persons to come to the Towns end to adore this Holy Thorn in the Church of
to Sanctity she makes too much use of Terrour The Spirit of the Gospel is a Spirit of Sweetness The Law of Moses had a hundred Threats for one Promise but the Gospel hath a hundred Promises for one Threatning It s Character is that of Debonairty Mens Souls must be drawn by Love to oblige them to Love God That is the true Principle of Sanctification Though it were true That Purgatory were capable of restraining Men God hath no need of a Lie for his help to uphold his Truth and to settle his Justice But there is something more and we are engaged to regard this Controversie as a Capital Affair and for many Reasons 1. We are obliged to nourish the peace of honest and pure Consciences and of Souls truly penitent They accuse us of lulling them asleep and plunging them into Security God is our Witness therein We present to them just and lawful Terrours by the sight of the Pains of Hell but when they have escaped those Pains by a true Repentance we would account a Cruelty to present to them other Pains of the same Nature and declare them to be unavoidable If the Roman Church should teach this Dogma in good earnest and that it were so believed I maintain it would be Impossible for their Faithful People to die without unimaginable Auguishes A Moment in Purgatory is something more cruel thau whole Years of the Gout or Gravel Colick and all other Pains gathered together in some wretched Creature How could a Man die with any tranquillity being assured to fall into Torments so horrible and of so long continuance If we must consider it as a Capital Crime to make a poor Wretch suffer without the Magistrates Order Racks and dolourous Torments We cannot behold it as a light thing to torment Souls so cruelly without God's Order by the fear of an Imaginary Evil 2. Although Purgatory should do no more hurt at this day it would deserve to be banished for the Evil it hath done It is the Source whence have sprung so many shameful Productions which dishonour the Christian Name so many fabulous Stories false Miracles returns of Souls Visionary Apparitions and a Thousand other things of this sort In a word It 's the Father of Legends and the cause why the Christian People in most places is yet fed with those Windy Meats and with that Word which may well be called the Antipodes of God's Word Shall that be counted for nothing which hath so often served a dishonest Gain And though it were possible to hinder these Abuses why should we retain a Doctrine which exposes both the People and the Conductors to so many Spiritual Dangers 3. I would intreat these Gentlemen that they would well remember the Principle which we have laid in the Subject of Satisfactions and Indulgences it is that to judge well what distance a Doctrine doth cause between one Religion and another it must be regarded by that which is reduced to Practice It 's Practice which is sensible to the People and the People is that Party properly whose Reunion is in agitation Upon that Fort let them consider of what importance is Purgatory in this Affair it is the foundation of a great part of the Worship of the Roman Church it is the foundation of Satisfactions and Indulgences whereof we have seen the Sequels to fill up all their Worship Purgatory is the foundation of Prayer for the Dead the cause of the Sacrifice the occasion of so many Masses of Prayers and of Services of so many Travels of Pennances of Vows of Pilgrimages and Macerations In a word one may say that all is done for Purgatory and Nothing almost for Hell For an Act of Contrition according to these Gentlemen saves from Hell But all the Contrition of all the Penitents together would do nothing against the Pains of Purgatory Men must pass through them or redeem them by Penible Works by Prayers by Alms by Masses and Penances So all the Strength of Devotion is turn'd towards that side 'T is clear then methinks that we cannot tolerate a Doctrine whereupon is fastened a Worship whereof we cannot participate though our Life were laid thereon ARTICLE IX Of Sacraments in General WE have met with so many things which separate us from the Roman Church in those Articles that we have now examined that it is not very necessary to find some in this present Matter which is that of the Sacraments Monsieur de Condom passes it over lightly hastening to that of the Eucharist I will also follow him and pass by this place with the like swiftness The Controversies which regard Sacraments in general their efficacy and their manner of acting are for the most part most Metaphysical and therefore beyond the common capacity of the Vulgar That of the necessity of Intention in the Minister thereof is nevertheless of no small importance It deserves well that Mousieur de Condom should speak a word of it He did too much think of what he was Writing that she should forget it It seems he did not find colours good enough to cover that horrid uncertainty wherein Christians must needs continue whilst they suppose the validity of the Sacrament to depend of necessity on the Intention of him that doth administer it For in fine we maintain that on this Supposition one can nevet be assured neither of having been rightly Baptized nor that what is ador'd in the Eucharist is no more Bread and so Men are never out of the danger of Idolatry About Baptism doth only the absolute necessity of this Sacrament and condemn to death those little Children whose unhappiness it is to die without receiving of it but he brings no proof for it I will only say That what Monsieur de Condom adds is not very true That we fear not to suffer willingly our Infants to die like the Children of Infidels I know none but do fear that and that will not do all that they can to hinder this mishap yea we make no scruple of Baptizing them without our Churches in case of necessity But when the Providence of God prevents our care and suffers it not to succeed we would be very loath to damn to Eternity Creatures more often innocent than those who have given them birth and which have the happiness to be born within the Covenant of Grace About the Sacraments of Confirmation Extreme Unction Order and Marriage Monsieur de Condom leaves the part of Explication and takes that of Probation Though the Proofs were worth any thing I would not examine them himself hath forbidden it us If any one saith he shall think fit to answer this Tract he is desired to consider that for a meet Advancer of the Business to purpose he must not undertake to confute the Doctrine which it contains I have submitted to this Law and have conceived the Equity thereof But in truth without it I should wrong my Lord of Condom if I should mispend time
brought them out of Egypt If it be the Intention of Jesus Christ that there shall be in his Church a perpetual Sacrifice of his Body and of his Blood we must not flatter our selves we follow not the Religion of Jesus Christ But if that continual Sacrifice hath not been instituted by the Lord assuredly they make a new Christianism and a new Religion The Question then is to know if without any other Mystery we should pass into a Religion which is Essentially different from ours 2. But it is not only the Question to know If Men should introduce into the Church a new Sacrifice but if Men should Sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God It is the greatest Oblation the Noblest and most important in the World And that deserves well methinks to have Reflexion made thereon before we engage to Re-union whereto they invite us If any rash Person would sprinkle with the Blood of Oxen and Sheep their Altars according to the Usage of all People and of the Ancient Church there would not be Thunders enough to crush to death such an Undertaker If such an Impious Man should form a Society wherein they might practice such Sacrifices they would arm all the Powers of Christianism to abolish such a Religion Yet would that agitation be but about the Sacrifices of some Beasts The business is to Sacrifice the God of Heaven the Master of the World and they will perswade us that it is a business of Nothing 3. The Question again is to know Whether they should put into the hands of a Man the GOD of the Universe as an Oblation in the hands of a Sacrificer that is if we should debase the Creatour into the hands of a Creature It is a Truth which good Sense dictates among all Nations and all Ages that the Sacrificer is greater than the Oblation Without contradiction the lesser is blessed of the greater It is the Principle of St. Paul the Priest blesses the Oblation They put the Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of a Priest as an Oblation they then lift up the Priest above Jesus Christ We cannot but have regard to that as to a very good Affair 4. We cannot also keep our selves from seeing that this Doctrine doth annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by good and legitimate Consequences If the Lord Jesus Christ was to have Successors in his Off ce of Priest he is not then himself an Eternal Priest Either St. Paul's Reasoning is bad or my Proof is invincible For in fine I Reason like him He said If Perfection had been in the Levitical Priesthood was it needful that another Priest should arise after the Order of Melchisedeck and who should not be called after the Order of Aaron The Priesthood being changed there must of need be a change of the Law I say the same If Perfection was found in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Priest of Melchisedecks Order why should Men introduce new Priests which much more like to be after the Order of Aaron than after the Order of Melchisedeck And if the setling of a new Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck hath overthrown the Levitical Priesthood doth not the Priesthood of these Sacrifices annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ This is your Errour say they you suppose that this is a new Priesthood and it is not so for it is the same it is the Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck which is Eternal because it abides still in the Church and without that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ would not be Eternal after the way of that of Melchisedeck Why would Men oblige us to believe things that are incredible to justifie the Church of Rome They tell us That the Priesthood of their Priests is the same as that of Jesus Christ I know not whether Heaven and Earth are more distant and if Light and Darkness be more different Jesus Christ is God those Priests are Men. Jesus Christ abides for ever those Priests die No Man succeeds Jesus Christ Priests succeed one the other Jesus Christ offered not for himself the Priests offer for their own Sins as for those of the People Jesus Christ is Holy separate from Sinners Priests are often engaged into great Disorders Jesus Christ hath offered once one sole Sacrifice these offer every day and reiterate their Sacrifice Jesus Christ finishes his Sacrifice in the Holy Places not made with hands Priests make their Sacrifices upon Altars of Stone and in Temples made by Mans hand In fine Melchisedeck was a singular Man and only it must needs be therefore that he who was to sustain that Priesthood whereof his was the Figure should be a singular and only Person but the Priests are in great Numbers After that can Men deny that Priests are Sacrificers much rather like the Order of Aaron than that of Melchisedeck And if it be so we say it once more The Establishment of their Priesthood destroys that of Christ by good Consequence Though that should be granted say they it is a disavowed Consequence and which by consequence should not prove an obstacle to the Re-union To that I say Though Men disavow it yet we see it and fear it still because it produces actually its effect It is not in Points of Practise as in those of Speculation In these it is true so the Consequence be disavowed it must not be imputed although it do arise from the Speculative Principles of those that disavow it But when a Practise or Worship destroy by consequence an important Truth that is in vain to disavow the Consequence while People remain in the Worship and in that Practise they are actually guilty of having done prejudice against such a Truth For Example A Pagan doth joyn to the Adoration of God the Sovereign many Inferiour Deities We tell him That by this Worship he offers a great Wrong to the Soveraign God He may Answer That it is a Consequence which he disavows and that his Intention is to render an infinite Honour to this Soveraign God Because he disavows the Consequence is he justified 5. Finally We cannot keep our selves from seeing That the Sacrifice of the Mass doth a great dishonour to the Sacrifice of the Cross for if it be needful to reiterate every day that Sacrifice the first Oblation which was made thereof must have been insufficient We Reason as the Apostle that saith The Sacrifices that are offered every year cannot sanctifie them that have recourse to them otherwise they had ceased them from offering them since the Offerers being once sanctified should have had no more Conscience of Sin We Reason as these Doctors themselves We shall hear one of them presently saying to us If the Mass were infinite it were in vain to offer many Masses Let 's be permitted to say also If the value of the Sacrifice of the Cross were infinite it is in vain to offer so many others It is here that