AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE Catholic Church IN MATTERS OF Controversie By the Right Reverend JAMES BENIGNE BOSSUET Counsellor to the King Bishop of Meaux formerly of Condom and Preceptor to the Dauphin First Almoner to the Dauphiness Done into English from the Fifth Edition in French LONDON Printed in the Year 1685. The Approbation of the Right Reverend the Archbishops and Bishops WE have read the Treatise intituled An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Matters of Controversie Composed by the Right Reverend James Benignus Bossuet Bishop and Lord of Condom Preceptor to his Royal Highness the Dauphin And we declare That after having examined it with as much application as the importance of the matter required we have found the Doctrine contained in it to be conformable to the Catholic Apostolic and Roman Faith And therefore we think our selves obliged to propose it as such to those whom God has committed to our charge We are certain the Faithful will be edified by it and we hope those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion who will read this Work with attention will receive from it so right an understanding as may conduce to put them into the way of Salvation CHARLES MAURICE LE TELLIER Archbishop and Duke of Reims CH. de ROSMADEC Bishop of Tours FELIX Bishop and Earl of Chalons De GRIGNAN Bishop of Usez D. DE LIGNY Bishop of Meaux NICHOLAS Bishop of Auxerre GABRIEL Bishop of Autun MARC Bishop of Tarbe ARMAND JOHN Bishop of Beziers STEPHEN Bishop and Prince of Grenoble JULIUS Bishop of Tule A Table of Articles contained in this Treatise I. DEsign of this Treatise Pag. 1 II. Those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion acknowledg That the Catholic Church embraces all the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion Pag. 2 III. Religious Worship is terminated only in God Pag. 4 IV. Invocation of Saints Pag. 6 V. Images and Reliques Pag. 9 VI. Justification Pag. 12 VII Merits of Good Works Pag. 13 VIII Satisfactions Purgatory and Indulgences Pag. 16 IX Sacraments Pag. 19 Baptism Pag. 20 Confirmation Ibid. Pennance and Sacramental Confession Ibid. Exream Vnction Pag. 21 Marriage Ibid. Holy Orders Pag. 22 X. Doctrine of the Church touching the real Presence of the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST in the Eucharist and how the Church understands these Words This is my Body Ibid. XI Explication of these Words Do this in remembrance of me Pag. 25 XII Explication of the Doctrine of the Calvinists concerning the real Presence Pag. 27 XIII Of Transubstantiation and Adoration and in what sense the Eucharist is a Sign Pag. 33 XIV Sacrifice of the Mass Pag. 34 XV. Epistle to the Hebrews Pag. 37 XVI Reflections upon the precedent Doctrine Pag. 39 XVII Communion under both Species Pag. 41 XVIII The Written and unwritten Word Pag. 43 XIX The Authority of the Church Pag. 44 XX. The Opinions of the Pretended Reform'd upon the Authority of of the Church Pag. 46 XXI Authority of the Holy See and of Episcopacy Pag. 50 XXII Conclusion of this Treatise Ibid. An Advertisement upon Account of this Present Edition ONE would have thought those of the pretended Reformed Religion in reading this Treatise should at least have granted that the Doctrine of the Church was faithfully Expounded in it The least they could have allowed a Bishop was to have understood his own Religion and to have spoke without disguise in a matter where to dissemble would be a crime But nevertheless it has fallen out otherwise This Treatise whilst a Manuscript was made use of to instruct several particular persons and many Copies of it were dispersed Upon which the sincerer part of the pretendedly Reform'd were almost every where heard to say That if it were approved it would in reality take away great difficulties But that the Author durst never publish it and if he should he would not escape the censure of all those of his Communion not particularly of Rome which would not frame it self to his Maxims After some time nevertheless this Book thus condemned to a perpetual obscurity appeared ushered in with the Approbation of several Bishops And the Author who knew very well he had only expressed in it the mind of the Council of Trent apprehended not those censures threatned by the Reformers It was not certainly probable that the Catholick Faith should be betrayed instead of being expounded by a Bishop who after having preached the Gospel all his life time without the least suspicion of his Doctrine had been newly called to instruct a Prince whom the greatest King in the World and the most zealous Defender of the Religion of his Ancestors causes to be Educated in such a manner that he may be one day one of its principal supports But these Gentlemen of the pretended Reformation ceased not to persevere in their first Opinion They expected every moment when Catholicks should oppose this Book and Rome it self condemn it The occasion of this their imagination was that the major part who know nothing of our Doctrine but as represented to them by their Ministers under the most hideous Ideas know it not again when shewn in its natural dress So that it was no hard task to represent to them the Author of the Exposition as one who mollified the Sentiments of his Religion and sought out proper and qualifying moderations to content all Parties There has appeared two Answers to this Treatise The Author of the first would not discover his name M. Claude de Langle Daille Alix and till he himself be pleased to declare it we will not reveal the secret It is enough to us that this work was approved by the Ministers of Charenton and sent to the Author of the Exposition by the late M. Conrart one endowed with all that Catholicks could desire in a Man An. p. 3. 112 113 124.137 c. excepting a better Religion The other Answer was written by M. Noguier a Minister who is amongst them of great repute and has the esteem of an able Divine Nog p. 63 94 95 109 110. An. p. 10. Nog p. 40. Nog p. 20 27. They both pretended the Exposition was contrary to the decisions of the Council of Trent They both affirm the very design it self of expounding the Doctrine of the Council to be prohibited by the Pope And they both take care to say that M. de Condom does only mince and extenuate the Doctrine of his Religion As they represent him one would think that he relents An. Avert p. 24. that he is coming over to them that he abandons the Sentiments of his own Church Rep. p. 3. An. p. 137. Nog p. 94. An Avert p. 25 26 27 28 29. and embraces those of the Pretended Reform'd In fine his Treatise agrees not with that Profession of Faith which the Roman Church proposes to all those who are of her Communion and they represent him at defiance with every Article If we believe the Anonymus this
means to reunite our minds We may say the same to these of the Pretended Reform'd Religion If the Merit of Good Works if Prayers addressed to Saints if the Eucharist if the humble satisfactions of Penitents who endeavour to appease the wrath of God in voluntarily revenging upon themselves by Laborious Exercises his offended Justice if the Terms we use of a Tradition which claims its Origin from the first Ages for want of being rightly understood offend you The Author of the Exposition offers himself to give you the plain and natural explication of them which the Church has always faithfully conserv'd He says nothing of his own he alledges not particular Authors and to the end he may not be suspected of changing the Tenets of the Church he uses the proper Terms of the Council of Trent where she has explicated her self upon these matters in question what can there be more rational This was the second thing he promised and he has in this only followed the Example of the Pretended Reform'd They complain as well as we their Doctrines are not rightly understood and the means they propose to come to a true knowledge of them is not different from that which M. de Condom makes use of Their Synod of Dort requires that none judge of the Faith of their Churches from Calumnies picked up here and there Conclusio Synodi Dordrac in Syntag. Confess Fidei edit Genev. p. 2. or passages of particular Authors which are often falsely cited or wrested to a sense contrary to their Intentions but from the Confessions of Faith of their Churches and from the Declaration of their Orthodox Doctrine unanimously made in this Synod The Faith then of a Church must be learnt from its publick Definitions and not from Private Authors who may be falsely quoted mis-understood and may also themselves mis-explicate the Sentiments of their Religion Upon which account it will be only necessary that to expound ours to the Pretended Reform'd we produce the Decisions of the Council of Trent I know the very name of this Council offends those of the Reformation and the Anonymus often shews his ill humour against it But what do his Invectives avail him We go not here about to justifie the Council It suffices for this Author of the Exposition that the Doctrine of this Council is universally received without Contestation through the whole Catholic Church and that she admits of no other Decisions in these matters of controversie but of this Council The Pretended Reform'd have always endeavoured to have these Decisions thought ambiguous and the Anonymus reproaches us also with their being capable of a double or triple sense Those who have not read this Council An. p. 11.12 unless it were in the Invectives of their Ministers and in the History of Fa. Paul the declared Enemy of it believe them such but one word will satisfie them It is very true there was some Points the Council would not decide and they were those concerning which there was no settled Tradition and which were disputed of in the Schools It was but reasonable they should be left undecided but for those it has decided it has spoken so precisely that amongst so many Decrees of this Council produced in the Exposition the Anonymus could not find so much as one in which there was this double or triple sence he objects against us In effect It is but reading them and one shall see they have not any ambiguity and that it is impossible for men to explicate themselves more clearly We may put the Exposition it self to the same Test and judge by that whether the Anonymus had reason to upbraid the Author of this Exposition with those rambling and general Terms in which says he he entanglingly wraps up the most difficult matters Avert p. 25. Rep. p. 12. The third thing the Author of the Exposition promised was to treat of those matters which gave occasion to the Separation This is precisely what ought to be done There is no one who knows not that in disputes there are always some certain principal points upon which mens minds are fixed It is to these a Person must apply himself who would make it his business to end or appease those contests Thus did the Author of the Exposition who immediately declared to the Pretended Reform'd that he would expound to them those points from which they took the Subject of their separation And to the end there should be no surprize Exp. p. 2. he again declares the same at the end that to keep himself fixed to what is principal Exp. p. 50. he omitted some questions which they of the Pretended Reform'd Religion did not look upon as a lawful Subject of separation He has kept his word most faithfully and the Titles alone of the Exposition will make it appear he has not omitted any one of those principal Articles So that the Anonymus should not have said that M. de Condom has some select Terms to avoid the difficulties which give him the most trouble Avert p. 22. that he leaves many questions untouched and makes hast to that of the Eucharist where he thought he could enlarge himself with less disadvantage Repl. p. 168. What an Idea would he give us of this Book of the Exposition but it destroys it self Every one sees it was M. de Condom's business to enlarge himself upon that point of the Eucharist not because he thought he could do it with less disadvantage but because this point is in reality the most difficult and full of great questions So that it will appear he has treated these matters with less or greater scope according as they appear'd less or more embroiling not to him but to those for whom he writes And if it be true that he lays aside those difficulties which give him the most trouble it must be allow'd those which give him the least are in reality those which are the most essential and those in which the Pretended Reform'd always thought themselves the most secure He has treated of the worship due to God of Prayers to Saints of the honour we render to them as also to their Images and Reliques He has spoken of justifying Grace of the Merit of Good Works of the necessity of Works of Satisfaction of Purgatory of Indulgences of Sacramental Confession and Absolution of the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of our Saviour in the Eucharist of that Adoration which is therein due to him of Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Altar of Communion under one Species of the Authority of Tradition and that of the Church of the Divine Institution of the Popes Primacy where he has in one word explained what is to be believed of Episcopacy He has expounded all these difficulties and there needs only a little honesty to grant that he has been so far from avoiding difficulties as the Anonymus would have it thought that he has principally applied
annexed an express promise of remission of sins 1 Jac. 14.55 and comfort of the sick to Extream Unction nothing is wanting to make this sacred ceremony a true Sacrament It is only to be remaked that according to the Doctrine of the Council of Trent Sess 14. c 2. de Sac. Extr. unc the sick are more relieved in respect of the soul than of the body and that as the spiritual profit is always the principal object of the new law so it is that also which we ought absolutely to expect from this holy unction if we be rightly disposed for it whereas the ease in sickness is only granted with a respect to our eternal salvation according to the secret dispositions of the divine Providence and the different degrees of preparation and faith which is found in the Faithful Marriage When we consider that JESVS CHRIST has given a new form to Marriage Math. 19.5 reducing this holy society to two persons immutably and indissolubly united and when we see this inseparable union Eph. 5.32 the sign of his eternal union with his Church we shall not have my difficulty to comprehend that the mariage of the Faithful is accompanied by the Holy Ghost and by Grace and we shall praise the divine bounty for having been thus pleased to consecrate the origin of our birth Orders The Imposition of Hands which the Administrators of sacred things receive 1 Tim. 4. 2 Tim. 2. being accompained with so apparent a vertue of the Holy Ghost and so full an infusion of his Grace it ought to be placed amongst the number of the Sacraments And indeed we must acknowledg our adversaries do not absolutely exclude the consecration of Ministers Conf. de Foy Art 35. but that they only exclude it from the number of the Sacraments which are common to the whole Church SECT X. Doctrine of the Church touching the real presence of the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST in the Eucharist and the manner how the Church understand these words This is my Body VVE are come you see at the last to the Question of the Eucharist where it will be necessary that we explicate our Doctrine more fully however without exceeding too much the bounds we have prescribed our selves The real presence of the Body and Blood of our Saviour is solidly established by the words of the Institution which we understand literally and there is no more reason to ask us why we fix our selves to the proper and literal sense then there is to ask a Traveller why he follows the high Road. It is their parts who have recourse to the figurative sense and who take by-paths to give a reason for what they do As for us who find nothing in the words which JESVS CHRIST makes use of for the institution of this mystery obliging us to take them in a figurative sense we think that to be a sufficient reason to determine us to the literal But we are yet more powerfully engaged when we come to consider in this Mystery the intention of the Son of God which I will explicate after the plainest manner I am able and that by Principles which I think our adversaries themselves cannot deny I say then These words of our Saviour Take eat Math. 16. Luc. 22. this is my body given for you show us that as the antient Jews did not in Spirit only unite themselves to the Immolation of the Victim which was offered for them but that in reality they eat the sacrifised flesh which was to them a mark of their partaking of that oblation So JESVS CHRIST becoming himself our Victim would have us really eat of the flesh of his Sacrifice to the end the actual communication of this adorable flesh might be a perpetual testimony to every one of us in particular that it was for us he took it and for us he immolated it God had forbidden the Jews to eat of the sin-offering to teach them the true expiation of their crimes was not to be accomplished in the Law nor by the blood of Beasts all the people lay Levit. 6.30 as it were under an interdiction by this prohibition without being able to have any actual participation of the remission of Sins By a contrary reason it was necessary the Body of our Blessed Saviour the true Host immolated for sin should be eaten by the Faithful to show them by this eating that the remission of sin was accomplished in the new Testament God also forbid the Children of Israel to eat Blood Levit. 17.11 and one of the reasons for this Prohibition was because the Blood was given us for the Expiation of our Souls But on the contrary our Blessed Saviour gives us his Blood to drink Math. 26.28 because it is shed for the remission of Sins So that the eating of the Body and Blood of the Son of God is as real at the Holy Table as the Grace the expiation of Sins and the participation of the Sacrifice of JESVS CHRIST is actual and real in the new Covenant Nevertheless seeing he desired to exercise our Faith in this Mystery and at the same time to free us from the horror of eating flesh and drinking Blood in their proper Species it was convenient he should give us them cloathed under another Species But if these Considerations have obliged him to make us partake of the flesh of our Victim after another manner than the Jews he was not for that obliged to deprive us in the least of the reality of his Substance It appears then to accomplish the antient Figures and to put us in actual Possession of the Victim offered for our Sins that JESVS CHRIST had intention to give us really his Body and Blood Which is so evident that our Adversaries themselves would have us to believe they are in this of the same opinion with us perpetually repeating how they deny not the actual Presence nor the real Participation of the Body and Blood in the Eucharist This we will examine hereafter where we think it necessary to represent their Sentiments after we have finished the Explication of those of the Church But in the mean time we will conclude that if the plainness of our Saviours words has forced them to acknowledg his express Intention was to give us in reality his Flesh when he said This is my Body they ought not to be astonished if we cannot consent to understand these words only in Figure In reality the Son of God who was so careful to explicate to his Apostles what he taught them under Parables and Figures having said nothing here to explicate himself it appears he left these words in their natural Signification I know these Gentlemen pretend the Nature of the thing explains it self sufficiently because we see very well say they what he presents us is nothing but Bread and Wine but this reason vanishes when we consider he who speaks has an Authority which over-rules the Senses and
a Power which has Dominion over universal Nature The Son of God has no more difficulty to render his Body present in the Eucharist by saying This is my Body than to Cure a Woman of her Infirmity Luc. 13.12 by saying Woman thou art freed from thy Infirmity or to preserve the Life of a young Man by saying to his Father John 4.50 Thy Son liveth or to forgive the Sins of the Man sick of the Palsy Mat. 9.2 by saying to him Thy Sins are forgiven thee So that not troubling our selves how he will execute what he has said we rest precisely upon his words He who does what he will by speaking does what he pleases and it was more easy for the Son of God to force the Laws of Nature to verify his word than it is for us to accommodate our Understandings to these kind of violent Interpretations which break the Laws of common Discourse These Laws of Discourse teach us that a sign which represents a thing naturally receives often the name of the thing represented being as it were its nature to bring the Idea of the thing into the Mind The same also happens tho with some restriction to instituted Signs when they are received and Persons accustomed to them But that in establishing a Sign which has no relation to the thing as for example a Morsel of Bread to signify the Body of a Man the name of the thing signified should be given to it with out any Explication and before any agreement as JESVS CHRIST has done in his last Supper is a thing unheard of and of which we find no example in holy Writ not to say in any Language Neither do the Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion so fix themselves to the figurative Sense which they would give to these words of JESVS CHRIST but that they do at the same time acknowledge he had intention in pronouncing them to give us in reality his Body and Blood SECT XI Explication of these Words Do this in remembrance of me AFter having proposed the Sentiments of the Church touching these words This is my Body we must explicate what she thinks of those others which JESVS CHRIST added Do this in remembrance of me It is manifest the intention of the Son of God is to oblige us by these words Luc. 22.19 to remember the Death which he has endured for our Salvation 1 Cor. 1â— 24 and St. Paul concludes from these same words that we declare the Death of our Saviour in this Mystery But they must not perswade themselves 2 Cor. 11.26 that remembrance of our Saviours Death excludes the real Presence of his Body on the contrary if they consider what we have lately explicated they will clearly understand this Commemoration to be grounded upon the real Presence For as the Jews in eating of the Peace-Offerings remembred they had been immolated for them in the same manner in eating of the flesh of JESVS CHRIST our Victim we ought to remember he died for us This very flesh then eaten by the Faithful not only renews in us the memory of his immolation but confirms also to us the reality of it And we are so far from having reason to say that this solemn Commemoration which JESVS CHRIST ordains us to make excludes the Presence of his Body that on the contrary we see this tender remembrance which he would have us to make at the Holy Table of him as immolated for us is grounded upon this that this very flesh ought to be there taken really seeing in effect it is not possible for us to forget it was for us he gave his Body in Sacrifice when we see he daily gives us the same Victime to eat Must Christians under pretence of celebrating in the Lords Supper the memory of the Passion of our Saviour deprive this Pious Commemoration of what it has most efficacious and tender in it Ought they not to consider that JESVS CHRIST does not command them only to remember him but to remember him in eating of his Flesh and Blood Consider the Connexion and the force of his words He does not say simply as those of the Pretended Reformation seem to understand him That the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist should be to us a Memorial of his Body and Blood but he advertises us that in doing what he has prescribed that is in receiving his Body and Blood we should remember him What is there in reality more powerful to make us remember him And if Children do so tenderly remember their Parents and their Bounties towards them when they approach the Tombs where their Bodies are interred how ought our Remembrance and our Love to be excited when we possess under these sacred Vails under this mystical Sepulchre this living and Life-giving Flesh and this Blood yet flowing with his Love and full of Spirit and Grace But if our Adversaries continue to tell us That he who commands us to remember him does not give us his proper Substance we must in fine desire them to agree amongst themselves They profess not to deny the real Communication of the proper substance of the Son of God in the Eucharist If their words are serious if their Doctrine be not an illusion they must necessarily say with us the remembrance does not exclude all kinds of Presence but only that which strikes the Senses Their Answer shall be ours seeing that tho we affirm JESVS CHRIST to be present yet we acknowledg at the same time that he is not present after a sensible manner And if it should be demanded how it comes to pass that believing as we do the Senses to have nothing to do in this Mystery we should not believe it sufficient that JESVS CHRIST should be present by Faith It is easie to answer and to clear this Equivocal Objection It is one thing to say the Son of God is present to us by Faith and another thing to say we know by Faith that he is present The first manner of speaking imports only a moral presence but the second signifies to us a very real one because our Faith is most real and this real Presence known by Faith Habac. 2.4 is sufficient to work all the forementioned Effects in the Just Man who lives by Faith SECT XII Exposition of the Calvanists Doctrine concerning the real Presence BUT to remove all the Equivocations which Calvinists make use of in this matter and show at the same time how near they have approached to us it will be convenient to add here the exposition of their Sentiments tho I only undertook to explicate the Doctrine of the Church Their Doctrine has two parts the one speaks of nothing but the Figure and the other of nothing but the Reality of the Body and Blood We shall see each of these parts in order They tell us first This great Miracle of the real Presence which we admit is useless that it is enough for our Salvation JESVS
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
naturally form in the minds of the Faithful give us nothing but the Ideas of his real presence Therefore it was necessary our adversaries should find out some expressions the sound of which might at least give us a confused Idea of this reality When a Man fixes himself either entirely upon Faith as Catholicks do or entirely upon humane Reason as Infidels do it is easie for him to establish a connected and uniform model of Doctrine But when a man goes about to make a composition of one and the other he always says something which he would not say and afterwards falls into opinions the sole contrarieties of which shew the manifest falsity of them This is what has hapned to these Gentlemen of the pretended reform'd Religion and God has so permitted it to facilitate their return to Catholic unity For whereas their proper experience shows them they must necessarily express themselves as we do to speak the language of Truth ought they not to judge it necessary to think as we do to understand it right If they observe in their own belief many expressions which have no sence but according to our tenets is it not sufficient to convince them that Truth is not in its full perfection but amongst us And those unconnected parts of Catholick Doctrine which are scatered here and there in their Catechisms but which as I may say require to be united to the whole ought they not to excite them to search in the Communion of the Church a full and entire explication of the Mystery of the Eucharist They would no doubt of it be brought to it did not humane Reflections trouble and perplex their Faith which has too much dependance upon Sence But having shown what Fruit they ought to reap from the Exposition of their Doctrine let us finish the explication of our own SECT XIII Of Transubstantiation and Adoration and in what sence the Eucharist is said to be a Sign IT having been convenient as it was said before that the Senses should not perceive any thing in this Mystery of Faith it was necessary nothing should be changed in respect of them in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist Upon which account being we see the same Species and feel the same Effects as before in this Sacrament we must not wonder if the same name be given to them sometimes and in some certain Sense Yet notwithstanding Faith being attentive to his word who performs what pleases him in Heaven and on Earth acknowledges here no other Substance but what is designed by the same word that is to say the proper Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST into which the Bread and Wine are changed this is what we call Transubstantiation However That real verity which is interiorly contained in the Eucharist hinders not the exterior and sensible part from being a sign but a sign of such a Nature that it is so far from excluding the reality of the thing signified it bears it necessarily along with it seeing that in effect these words This is my Body pronounc'd upon that matter which JESVS CHRIST himself made choice of is to us a certain sign that his Body is present and though the Symbols appear always the same to our Senses yet our Mind judges otherwise of them and not according to Sense because a Superior Authority interposes So that whereas certain Species and a certain sequel of natural impressions on our Senses have been accustomed to design to us the substance of Bread and Wine the Authority of Him in whom we believe causes these same Species to begin to shew us another substance For we give ear to him who said that this which we receive and eat is his Body and such is the force of these words they hinder us from referring those exteriour appearances to the Substance of Bread and induced us to refer them to the Body of JESVS CHRIST there present Insomuch that the presence of such an adorable Object being rendered certain to us by this sign we are not afraid to pay it our adorations I will not dwell upon the point of Adoration because the most learned and the most intelligent of our Adversaries have long since granted us those who are perswaded of the real Presence of JESVS CHRIST in the Eucharist ought to pay him in it their Adorations In fine being once convinced the all-powerful words of the Son of God operate whatever they declare we believe that in the last Supper they had their effect as soon as they were pronounced by him and by a necessary Consequence we acknowledg the real Presence of his Body before our receiving of it SECT XIV Sacrifice of the Mass THese things being supposed there remains no particular difficulty about the Sacrifice which we acknowledg in the Eucharist We have observed two actions in this Mystery which cease not to be distinct the one of them has a Relation to the other The first is the consecration by which the Bread and Wine are changed into the Body and Blood and the second is the receiving by which we partake of them In the Consecration the Body and the Blood are mystically seperated because JESVS CHRIST said separately This is my Body this is my Blood which includes a lively and efficacious Representation of the violent Death he suffered So that the Son of God is placed upon the Holy Table in vertue of these words cloathed with those signs which represent his Death this is effected by consecration and this Religious action carries with it an acknowledgment of Gods Soveraignty in as much as JESVS CHRIST there present renews and perpetuates in some sort the remembrance of his being obedient even to the Death of the Cross So that there is nothing wanting to render this a true Sacrifice We cannot doubt but this Action as distinct from that of Communicating is of it self acceptable to God and makes him look upon us with a more propitious Eye because it represents to him that voluntary Death which his beloved Son has suffered for us Sinners or rather places before his Eyes that very Son of his under the signs of this Death by which his Wrath had been appeased All Christians will confess the sole Presence of JESVS CHRIST to be a most Powerful Intercession before God for all mankind according to the saying of the Apostle That JESVS CHRIST presents himself and appears for us before the Face of God Heb. 9.24 So that we believe that JESVS CHRIST being present upon the Holy Table under this Figure of Death intercedes for us and represents continually to his Father that Death which he has suffered for his Church It is in this Sense we say JESVS CHRIST offers up himself to God for us in the Eucharist it is after this manner we conceive this Oblation renders God more propitious to us and therefore we call this a Propitiatory Sacrifice When we consider what it is JESVS CHRIST operates in this Mystery and that we see him
CHRIST died for us that his Sacrifice is sufficiently applied to us by Faith and that this application is sufficiently certified to us by the Word of God They add That if this Word must be clothed with sensible Signs it is enough to give simple Symbols such as the Water of Baptism without any necessity of fetching the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST from Heaven There seems to be nothing more easie than this manner of explicating the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Nevertheless our Adversaries themselves do not think it ought to suffice them They know such kind of Imaginations made the Socinians deny the great Miracle of the Incarnation God might have saved us say these Hereticks without so much difficulty he had nothing to do but to pardon out faults and might have instructed us sufficiently as well in Faith as in Manners by the Preaching and Examples of a Man full of the Holy-Ghost without any need of making him a God But the Calvinists as well as we see the weakness of this Argument which appears first from it s not appertaining to us to deny or affirm Mysteries according as they appear to us useful or unprofitable to our Salvation God alone knows the Secret and it is our business to render them useful and saving to us in believing them as he proposes them and in receiving his Graces after the manner he bestows them upon us Secondly not to enter into the question whether it was possible for God to save us by any other means than the Incarnation and Death of his Son and not to meddle with that unnecessary dispute which the Pretended Reform'd Religion treats of so at length in the Schools it suffices we have learnt from the Scriptures that the Son of God has been pleased to testifie his Love to us by incomprehensible Effects This Love has been the Cause of this so real an Union by which he was made Man This Love moved him to immolate the same Body for us as really as he united himself to it All these designs are consecutive and this Love maintains it self in all things with the same vigour So that when it shall please him to make each of his Children experience the goodness which he has testified to all in general by giving himself to them in particular he will find out a method to accomplish his Desires by no less efficacious means than those by which he had already accomplished our Salvation Upon which account we must not be hereafter astonished if he give to each of us the proper Substance of his Body and Blood He does it that he may imprint this in our Hearts that it was for us he took them and for us he offered them up in Sacrifice That which preceded makes all that follows credible to us the order of his Mysteries dispose us to believe all this and his express word permits us not to doubt of it Our Adversaries saw very well that simple figures and signs of his Body and Blood would not content Christians who are accustomed to the Bounties of a God who gives himself to us so really Wherefore they will not suffer us to accuse them of denying a real and substantial participation of JESVS CHRIST in their Supper They affirm Cat. Dim 53. as well as we that he makes us there Partakers of his proper Substance they tell us that he nourishes and quickens us with the substance of his Body and Blood Conf. of Faith art 36. and judging that it would not be enough to shew us by some sign that we are partakers of his Sacrifice Cat. Dim 52. they say expresly that the Body of our Saviour which is given us in the last Supper assures us of it words very remarkable which we will examine by and by Behold then the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST present in our Mysteries by the acknowledgment of the Calvinists for what is communicated according to its proper substance must be really present It is true they explicate this Communication by saying it is in Spirit and by Faith but it is true also they will have it real And because it is impossible to make it intelligible how a Body that is communicated to us only in Spirit and by Faith can be communicated to us really and in its proper substance therefore they have not been able to continue firm in the two parts of a Doctrine so contradictory and they have been obliged to acknowledg two things which cannot be true but by supposing what the Catholic Church teacheth The first is That JESVS CHRIST is given to us in the Eucharist after a manner whch neither agrees with that of Baptism nor the Preaching of the Gospel but is peculiar to this Mystery We shall see by and by the Consequence of this Principle but let us first see how it is granted us by those of the Pretended Reformation I will not here alledge the Authority of any particular Author but the proper words of their Catechism where it explicates what concerns the last Supper It does not only tell us in express terms that JESVS CHRIST is given us in the Supper in reality and according to his proper Substance but that Dim 53. tho he be truly communicated to us both by Baptism and the Gospel yet nevertheless it is only in part and not fully From whence it follows that he is given us in the Lords Supper fully and not in part There is a vast difference betwixt receiving in part and receiving fully If then we receive JESVS CHRIST every where else in part and it be only in the Lords Supper we receive him fully it follows by the consent of our Adversaries that we must look out for a participation in the last Supper which is proper only to this Mystery and which does not agree with Baptism and Preaching but at the same time it follows also that this participation is not annexed to Faith because Faith being generally dispersed through all the Actions of a Christian is found in Preaching and in Baptism as well as in the Lords Supper In reality it is remarkable that what desire soever the Pretended Reformers had to render Baptism and Preaching equal to the last Supper because JESVS CHRIST is there truly communicated to us they durst never affirm in their Catechisms that JESVS CHRIST is given us in his proper Substance by Baptism and Preaching as they say he is given in the Eucharist They saw then they could not avoid attributing to the Eucharist a manner of possessing JESVS CHRIST peculiar only to this Sacrament and that Faith which is common to all the Actions of a Christian could not be this particular manner But this peculiar manner of possessing JESVS CHRIST in the last Supper ought also to be real seeing it gives to the Faithful the proper substance of the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST So that we must conclude from what they grant us there is in the Eucharist a real manner of
by Faith present upon this Holy Table together with these Signs of Death we unite our selves to him in this Estate we present him to God as our only Victim and our sole Propitiator by his Blood confessing we have nothing to offer up to God but JESVS CHRIST and the infinite Merit of his Death We consecrate all our Prayers by this Holy Oblation and in presenting JESVS CHRIST to God we learn at the same time to offer up our selves to the Divine Majesty in him and by him as living Sacrifices This is the Sacrifice of Christians infinitely different from what was offered up in the Old Law a Spiritual Sacrifice becoming the New Covenant in which the presence of the Victim is only perceived by Faith in which the Word of God is the Spiritual Sword which makes a Mystical separation betwixt the Body and the Blood in which by consequence the Blood is only shed Mystically and in which Death only intervenes by representation and yet however a most real Sacrifice in as much as JESVS CHRIST is there truly contained and presented to his Father under this Figure of Death But a Commemorative Sacrifice which is so far from taking away our adhesion to the Sacrifice of the Cross as it is objected to us on the contrary it fixes us the firmer to it by all its circumstances seeing it has not only an entire relation to it but in reality has neither being nor subsistence but by this relation from whence it deriveth all the Vertue contained in it This is the express Doctrine of the Catholic Church in the Council of Trent which teaches that this Sacrifice is instituted only to represent that which was once accomplished upon the Cross Sess 22. c. 1. to perpetuate the memory of it to the end of the World and to apply to us the saving Vertue of it for the remission of those sins which we commit every day So that the Church is so far from believing that something wants to perfect the Sacrifice of the Cross on the contrary she thinks it so perfect and so fully sufficient as what is added is only instituted to celebrate the memory and apply its Vertue By which the same Church acknowledges that all the merit of the Redemption of Mankind depends upon the Death of the Son of God and it ought to be understood from all we have already expounded that when we say to God in the Celebration of the Divine Mystery We offer unto you this Holy Host we pretend not by this Oblation to make or present to God a new payment of the price of our Salvation but to offer up to him in our behalfs the Merits of our Blessed JESVS there present and the infinite price which he once paid for us upon the Cross The Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion do not think they offend JESVS CHRIST by offering him to God as present to their Faith and if they believed him to be really there what repugnance could they have to offer him up as truly present So that the whole dispute ought indeed to be reduced to the real presence alone From hence forwards all those false Ideas which these Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion form to themselves of the Sacrifice which we offer ought to be effaced They ought freely to acknowledge Catholics pretend not to make a new propitiation to appease God anew as if he had not been sufficiently satisfied by the Sacrifice of the Cross or to make some addition to the Price of our Salvation as if it were imperfect All these things have no place in our Doctrine because all that is here done is intended by way of Intercession and Application after the manner which we have now explicated SECT XV. The Epistle to the Hebrews AFter this Explication those mighty Objections drawn from the Epistle to the Hebrews and so much enforced against us will appear to have little reason in them and it is in vain our Adversaries strive to prove from the sentiments of the Apostle that we annul the Sacrifice of the Cross But because the best way to prove that two Doctrines are not opposite to one another is to shew by explicating them that no proposition of the one is contrary to any of the propositions of the other I think I am bound in this place to propose in short the Doctrine of this Epistle The Apostle intends in this Epistle to teach us that a sinnner could not avoid Death but by substituting some one in his place to die for him that whilst Men substituted only Beasts to be killed in their places their Sacrifices operated nothing but a publick acknowledgment of their having deserved Death and that seeing the Divine Justice could not be satisfied by so unequal an exchange they begun again every day to slay new Victims which was a certain mark of the insufficiency of that substitution But that since JESVS CHRIST had vouchsafed to die for Sinners God being satisfied by a Person substituting of himself so condignly sufficient and nothing more to exact for the price of our Redemption From whence the Apostle concludes we ought not only to offer up no more Victims after JESVS CHRIST but that JESVS CHRIST himself ought to be but once offered up to Death for us Let the Reader then who is solicitous for his Souls Salvation and a lover of Truth reflect a little upon what we have said concerning the manner how JESVS CHRIST offers up himself to God for us in the Eucharist I am certain he will not find any Proposition contrary to those which I have here related from the Apostle or which weakens his Argument so that nothing can be objected to us but his silence upon this point But those who would but consider the wise distribution which God makes of his secrets in the several Books of Scripture would not oblige us to receive from the sole Epistle to the Hebrews all our instructions concerning a matter which was not necessary to the Subject of that Epistle seeing the Apostle intends to explicate in it the perfection of the Sacrifice of the Cross and not the different manners which God has instituted to apply it to us And to remove all equivocation if we take the word Offer in the sence it is made use of in this Epistle as implying the actual Death of the Victim we will publickly confess that JESVS CHRIST is now no more offered up neither in the Eucharist nor any where else But because this word has a larger signification in other places of Scripture where it is often said We offer up to God what we present before him the Church which forms her Language and her Doctrine not from the sole Epistle to the Hebrews but from the whole Body of the Holy Scripture is not afraid to say that JESVS CHRIST offers up himself to God whereever he appears before his Face upon our behalf and that by consequence he offers up himself in the Eucharist according to
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
objected against the Popes 2. Thes 2.3.4 that they are that wicked Person that man of Iniquity who has seated himself in the Temple of God and makes himself adored as God They who confess themselves not only mortal men but sinners who pray every day with the rest of the Faithful forgive us our offences and who never approach the Altar without Confessing of their sins and without saying in the most essential part of the Holy Sacrifice they hope for eternal life not by their own Merits but through the Bounty of God in the name of our Lord JESVS CHRIST T is true they maintain that Primacy which JESVS CHRIST has given them in the Person of St. Peter but it is by That they advance the Work of JESVS CHRIST himself the Work of Charity and Concord which would never have been perfectly accomplished if the Universal Church and all the Episcopal Order had not one head of Ecclesiastical Gover ment upon Earth to make the Members act in concurrence and accomplish in the whole Body the Mystery of Unity so much recommended by the Son of God It is just as much as nothing to answer that the Church has her true Head in Heaven who Unites her by animating her with his Holy Spirit who doubts of it But who does not know this Holy Spirit who disposes all things with as much sweetness as efficacy knows also how to prepare exteriour means proportionable to his designs The Holy Ghost both teaches and governs us interiourly therefore he establishes Pastors and Teachers to Act exterourly The Holy Ghost Unites the Body of the Church and the Ecclesiastical Government therefore it is he places at the head a common Father and a principal disposer who may Govern the whole Family of JESVS CHRIST We will call to witness the Consciences of those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion In this unfortunate age when so many wicked Sects endeavour by little and little to undermine the Foundations of Christianity and believe it enough only to name JESVS CHRIST to introduce indifferency in Religion and manifest impiety into the bosom of the Church Who sees not the necessity of a Pastor who may watch over his flock and authorized from above encite all others whose vigilance might slacken Let them in reality tell us if it be not the Seconians the Anabaptists the Independants those who under the name of Christian Liberty would establish indifferency in Religions and so many other pernicious Sects which they condemn as well as we who fly with the greatest impetuosity against St. Peters Chair and cry loudest that his Authority is Tyrannical I do not wonder at it those who would divide the Church or surprise her fear nothing more than to see her march against them like a well ranged Army under one head Let us not raise a quarrel with any let us only reflect whence come those Books wherein these dangerous Licenses and Antichristian Doctrines are taught at least none can deny but the See of Rome by the very Constitution of it is incompatible with these Novelties and if we could not know by the Gospel that the Primacy of this See is necessary for us Experience it self would convince us of it Moreover We must not be astonished if this Author of the Exposition who places the essential Authority of this See in those things wherein all Catholic Schools agree hath been approved without difficulty The Chair of St. Peter stands in need of no disputing what all Catholics acknowledge without contestation suffices to maintain that Power which was given to it for edification and not for destruction The Pretended Reform'd should hereafter give way no more to those vain Phantoms with which they are frighted What does it profit them to search in Histories for the Vices of Popes when if what they meet with there should be true does the Vices of men destroy the institution of JESVS CHRIST and the Priviledge of St. Peter shall the Church rise in Rebellion against a Power which maintains her Unity under pretence that some have abus'd it Christians are accustomed to reason upon higher and more true Principles and know that God is able to maintain his works in the midst of all the evils which accompany humane frailty We do then Conjure these of the Pretended Reform'd Religion by that Charity which is God himself by the name of Christian which is common to us both not to judge of the Doctrine of our Church by what they hear in their Sermons or read in their Books where many times the heat of dispute and Prevention not to mention any other make things frequently otherwise represented then they are but to hearken to this Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine It is a work in reality which consists not so much in disputing as in explicating clearly our belief In which to see how plainly the Author has proceeded we need only consider his design He promised in the very beginning 1. To propose the true Tenets of the Catholic Church Exp. p. 2. and to distinguish them from those which are falsely imputed to her 2. To the end no one should doubt but that he faithfully proposed the true Sentiments of the Church Exp. p. 2. he promised to take them from the Council of Trent where the Church has spoken decisively upon the things in question 3. He promised to propose to the Pretended Reform'd not all points in general Exp. p. 2. but those which caused the greatest separation betwixt them and us and to speak properly those which they made the occasions of their breach 4. He promised that what he said to make the decisions of the Council more intelligible Exp. p. 2. should be approved of in the Church and manifestly conformable to the Doctrine of the same Council All this is plain and just And in the first place no body can think it strange we should distinguish the Churches Tenets from those which are falsely imputed to her When Persons are animated beyond measure for want of a right understanding and when strange prejudices move great disputes there is nothing more natural nothing more charitable then to explicate matters clearly The Holy Fathers practised a way fraudless and calm like this to set men right again Whilst the Arians and Semi-Arians decryed the Symbol of Nice and the Consubstantiality of the Son by the false Ideas they fixed upon them St. Athanasius and St. Hilarius the two most illustrious defenders of the Nicene Faith represented to them the true sense of the Councils and St. Hilarius said to them S. Hil. lib. de syn Let us both together condemn false Interpretations but not destroy the certainty of Faith The Word Consubstantial may be mis-understood let us resolve how we may rightly understand it We may lay down the true state of Faith betwixt us if we do not overthrow what has been rightly established but remover mis-understanding It is Charity it self which dictates such words and suggests such