the discipline of the pretended reform'd Religion under the title of Consistories Art 31. that going about to prescribe a means to end debates which might arise upon any point of Doctrine or Discipline c. they ordain first the Consistory shall endeavour to appease the whole without noise and with all the sweetness of the word of God and after having established a Consistory a Conference and a Provincial Synod as so many different degrees of Jurisdiction coming at last to a National Synod above which amongst them there is no Authority they speak of it in these terms There the entire and final resolution shall be given by the word of God to which if they refuse to acquiesce in every point and with an express disavowing of their errours they shall be cut off from the Church It is manifest those of the pretended Reformation do not attribute the authority of this last sentence to the word of God taken in it self and without dependence upon the authority of the Church for tho this word was made use of in their first Judgements yet notwithstanding they permitted an appeal It is then this word as interpreted by the soveragin tribunal of the Church which gives this final resolution to which whosoever refuses to submit in every point altho he boast he is authorized by the word of God is no more reputed but as a prosane person who corrupts and abuses it But the form of those Letters of deputation which were addres'd to the Synod of Vitre in the year 1617 to be observed by the Provinces when they were to send their Deputies to a National Synod has yet something more express it is in these terms We promise before God to submit our selves to all that shall be concluded and resolved of in your holy Assemblis to obey them and put them in execution to our utmost power being persuaded as we are that God will preside in it and lead you by his holy spirit into all Truth and equity by the rule of his word Here the point is not about receiving the resolution of a Synod after they have found it to speak according to Scripture they submit to it even before it is assembled and they do it because they are persuaded the Holy Ghost will preside in it If this persuasion be only founded upon a human presumption can a man in conscience promise before God to submit to all that shall be there concluded and resolved of to obey and execute them to the utmost of his power And if this Persuasion has its foundation in a certain belief of the assistance which the Holy Ghost gives to the Church in her final decisions Catholics themselves require no more So that the proceedings of our Adversaries shew them to agree with us in this supreme Authority without which it is impossible ever to put an end to any difficulty in Religion and tho whilst they were desirous to cast of the yoak of obedience they denied the Faithful to be obliged to submit their Judgments to that of the Church yet the necessity of establishing an order has since forced them to grant what their first undertakings had made them deny They have gone yet much further in the National Synod held at Saint Foy in the year 1578. There was some overture made of a Reconcilement with the Lutherans by means of a general form of a profession of Faith common to all their Churches which was proposed to be drawn up Those of this Kingdom were invited to send to an Assembly which was to be held upon this account Vertuous persons authorised by all the said Churches with an ample Procuration TO TREAT AGREE UPON AND DECIDE ALL POINTS OF DOCTRINE and other matters concerning that union Upon this Proposall see in that terms the resolution of the Synod of St. Foy was couched The National Synod of this Kingdom after having given God thanks for such an overture and commended the care diligence and good advice of the forementioned persons convocated and APPROVING THE REMLDIES WHICH THEY HAVE SUGGESTED that is to say principally that of framing a new Confession of Faith and to give power to some certain persons to compose it has ordained That if the copy of the above named Confession of Faith be sent in time it shall be examined in each Provincial Synod or otherwise according to the convenience of each Province and in the mean time has deputed four Min sters the most experienced in those affairs to whom express charge has been given to be present at the place and day appointed with the Letters and full Procurations of all the Ministers and Elders Deputies of the Provinces of this Kingdom as also of the Lord Viscount Turenne to do all things above said yea even incase that MEANS COULD NOT BE FOUND OUT TO EXAMINE IN EVERY PROVINCE THE SAID CONFESSION it should be referred to their prudence and sound judgement to agree and CONCLUDE all the points which shall be brought into deliberation as well FOR DOCTRINE as for other matters concerning the benefit union and peace of all the Churches It was to this in fine that this seeming tenderness of Conscience of these pretended Reformes tended How often have they reproched to us as a weakness that submission which we pay to the Decisions of the Church which say they is nothing else but a company of men lyable to error and yet nevertheless being assembled in a Body in a National Synod which represented all the Churches of the pretended Reformed in France they are not afraid by mutual consent to leave their faith to the arbitration of four men with so absolute an abandoning of their own sentiments that they gave them full power to change the very Confession of Faith it self which they do at this very day propose to the whole Christian world as a Confession of Faith which containeth nothing but the pure Word of God and for which as they said in presenting it to our Kings an infinite number of people were ready to shed their Blood I leave the prudent Reader to make his reflections upon the Decree of this Synod and shall in a few words finish the Explication of the Churches Tenets SECT XXI The Authority of the Holy See of Rome and of Episcopacy THE Son of God being desirous his Church should be one and and solidly built upon Unity hath established and instituted the Primacy of St. Peter to maintain and cement it Upon which account we acknowledg this Primacy in the Successors of the Prince of the Apostles to whom for this cause we owe that Obedience and Submission which the Holy Councils and Fathers have always taught the faithful As for those things which we know are disputed of in the Schools tho the Ministers continually alledg them to render this Power odious it is not necessary we speak of them here seeing they are not Articles of the Catholic Faith It is sufficient we acknowledg a Head established by God to conduct his whole
receiving the Body and Blood of our Saviour which is not performed by Faith and this is what the Catholic Church teaches The second thing granted by the Pretended Reformers is taken out of that Article which immediately follows that which I have already cited out of their Catechism Dim 52. which is That the Body of our Lord JESUS for as much as it was once offered up in Sacrifice to reconcile us to God is now given to assure us we have a part in that Reconciliation If there be any Sense in these Words if they be not an useless found and a vain amusement we ought to understand by them that JESVS CHRIST does not give us a Symbol only but his proper Body to assure us we partake of his Sacrifice and of the Reconciliation of Mankind But if the reception of the Body of our Lord assures us of our participation of the Fruits of his Death this participation of the Fruits must necessarily be distinguished from the reception of the Body seeing one is the pledg of the other From whence to proceed I say If our adversaries are forced to distinguish in the last Supper the participation of the body of our Blessed Saviour from the participation of the fruits of his Grace in his Sacrifice they must also necessarily make a distinction between the participation of this Divine Body and all kinds of Spiritual participation by Faith This latter participation will never furnish them with two distinct Actions by one of which they receive the Body of our Saviour and by the other the benefit of this Sacrifice no man being able to conceive what difference there is betwixt partaking by Faith of the Body of our Saviour and partaking by Faith of the Fruit of his Death They must therefore acknowledg that besides the Communion by which we spiritually partake of the Body of our Saviour and also of his Spirit by receiving the fruit of his Death there is also a Real Communion of the Body of the same Saviour which is to us a certain Pledg of the others being assured to us if we put no impediment to such a Grace by an evil Disposition This is necessarily included in the Principles they admit and they will never be able to explicate this Truth with the least shadow of Solidity if they return not to the Sentiments of the Church Who will not here admire the force of Truth All the consequences which follow from the acknowledged Principles of our adversaries are perfectly understood in the sentiment of the Church Catholicks the meanliest instructed without difficulty conceive that in the Eucharist there is a Communion which JESVS CHRIST which is not to be found any where else It is no difficulty for them to understand his Body is given us to assure us we partake of his Sacrifice and of his Death They distinguish clearly betwixt these two necessary manners of uniting or selves to JESVS CHRIST the one in receiving his proper flesh the other in receiving his Spirit the first of which is granted us as a certain pledge of the second But seeing these things are inexplicable in the sentiments of our adversaries tho on the other hand they cannot deny them we must necessarily conclude that errour has thrown them into a manifest contradiction I have been often astonished they did not explicate their Doctrine after a more plain manner Why did they not always without so many formalities persevere to say that JESVS CHRIST having shed his Blood for us represented to us this effusion by giving us two distinct signs of his Body and Blood that he was pleased indeed to give to these signs the name of the thing it self that these sacred signs were pledges to assure us of our partaking of the fruit of his Death and that we were spiritually nourished by the vertue of his Body and Blood After so many endeavours to prove that signs often receive the names of the things signified and that for this reason the sign of the Body might be called the Body all this connection of Doctrine obliges them naturally to fix there To render these signs efficacious it sufficed the Grace of Redemption was annexed to them or rather according to their Principles that it was in them confirmed to us They needed not have tormented themselves as they have done to make us understand we receive the proper Body of our Saviour to assure us we partake of the Grace of his Death They were well enough satisfied to have the water of Baptism a sign of the Blood which washeth us and it never entred into their fancies to say we there received the proper substance of the Blood of our Blessed Saviour to assure us his vertue is there diffused upon us If they had argued after the same manner as to the Eucharist their Doctrine would have been less embroyled But those who invent and innovate cannot express all they have a mind to They find certain truths and maxims established which incommode them and force a violence upon their imaginations The Arians would gladly have resused our Blessed Saviour the name of God or the only Son of God The Nestorians did not admit but with reluctance that kind of I know not what unity of person in JESVS CHRIST which we find in their writing The Pelagians who denied Original sin would also willingly have denyed that Baptism was given to little children for the remission of sins for by that means they would have been freed from the argument which Catholicks drew from this practice to prove that original defect But as I just now said those who find some truths firmly established have not the boldness or rather impudence to overthrow all Let the Calvinists ingenuously confess the truth they would have been well pleased to acknowledge in the Eucharist the Body of our Blessed Saviour only figuratively and the sole participation of his Spirit in effect laying aside those great words of Participation of his proper substance and the many others which import a real presence and serve only to perplex them It would have been more to their humour to have acknowledged in the Lords Supper no other communion with JESVS CHRIST but what is also common to Preaching and to Baptism without telling us as they have done that in the Lords Supper he is received in plentitude and every where else only in part But however this was their inclination yet the very force of the terms opposed them our Blessed Saviour having said so precisely of the Eucharist This is my body This is my Blood which he never did of any other thing nor upon any other occasion what likelihood was there of rendring that common to all the Actions of a Christian which his express word had annexed to one particular Sacrament And farther the whole order of divine providence the connexion of Doctrine and Holy Mysteries the intention of JESVS CHRIST in his last Supper the words themselves which he uttered and the impression which they
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