Charity and upheld by Hope This was the Sense of Gabriel Biel Occam Cajetan Dominicus à Soto who was in the Council of Trent these are not Imputations Molina justifies himself in his Book de Concordia liberi arbitrii cum Gratiae donis in citing all these Authors for himself Is there any thing more Pelagian more opposed to the Doctrine of St. Augustine who supposes and proves so often That the best of Mens Actions done without Grace are but illustrious Sins Though it were true to day that the Roman Church were return'd from that were there any right to accuse our Reformers for calumniating her And could they say That all our Reformation is founded on Calumny Were they bound to have a Spirit of Prophecy and to foresee that the School of Thomas which then did not make any figure in the World would reform it self would resume some force and would labour to re-establish part of the Doctrine of St. Augustine about Grace But I add That we have not the like cause to be content with the Council of Trent about the Doctrine of Justification as they would perswade us Why hath it kept measures with Pelagian Opinions Why did they not condem them And why did they affect an Ambiguity through which they save themselves that renew Pelagianism By that Ambiguity of the Canons of the Council of Trent the Author of the Advertisement would satisfie us in a word It 's true saith he there are some Matters which the Council would not decide and they were such whereof the Tradition was not constant and whereof they disputed in the Schools What the Matters of Grace against Pelagians were then but vain Disputes of the School about which it was not prudent to pronounce Had it not been defined in the Second Council of Orange that it 's a Gift of God when we have good Thoughts that we turn away our feet from Errour and Injustice That as often as we do good God acts in us that we may be able to act That we cannot prevent Grace by any Merit and that the good Works that are done without Grace merit not any recompence That the Grace which is not due to us prevents us that we may do good Works That it is the Gift of God to love him That he gives us to Love because he loves us before we love him That of our selves we have nothing but Sin and Lie That God doth in Man many good things without Man but that Man doth no good but what God makes him to do That the Vertue of Pagans was a worldly Cupidity but that of Christians is the Charity of God which is shed abroad in our hearts not by the force of Free Will which is in us but by the Holy Ghost which is given us There can nothing be more opposite to the Opinions of the School of Scotus who teaches That Man of himself may do all kind of good keep all the Commands in their substance love God above all do Acts of Contrition of true Faith true Hope and thereby prepare himself for Justification by a Proxime preparation Yea will they say but the Council of Trent hath condemn'd those lax Opinions which smelt of Pelagianism If they condemned them why are they yet alive in the Roman Church It 's an important Point and that must be proved The School of Scotus of Molina and the Molinists carries it by far and hath still carried it since the Council of Trent against the School of Thomas and the new Thomists This School of Molina teaches formally That all the Acts of Faith of Love of Repentance of Hope which are necessary for the Justification of an adult Infidel may be produced as to the Substance of the Work by a Man in the state of Nature corrupt with the only forces of Free Will That Divine Mysteries are indeed so high that a Man without Revelation could not find them out but when they are reveal'd to him in a convenient manner without any other Grace than an external Revelation and the Command of God to believe he may do Acts of true Faith and receive those Mysteries with full certitude This School saith the same of Contrition of God's Love c. and if Men will not believe us let them believe Molina himself Since the Council of Trent have they not maintained Preparations for Grace by the forces of Nature only with as much violence as before Estius teacheth us that Alphonsus à Castro doth teach That Man by the force of Nature and Free Will in doing that which is in him for observation of Nature's Law in the same Moment receives the Grace of God because that Divine Bounty suffers not that a Man that lives Morally well be deprived for a Moment of that Grace which may render him worthy of Eternal life though he be not instructed in the Faith of Christ and do not yet put his hope in him We learn from the same Estius that Dominicus à Soto who was present at the Council of Trent and made there so much stir in the Disputes about Grace Melchior Canus Franciscus à Victoria and many others do maintain Preparations for Grace under another form and say That Attrition which may be had by the only strength of Nature is sufficient with the Sacrament to obtain the Grace of Justification Vasquez is our Witness that Ricard Antony of Pantuse and many others have held since the Council of Trent That one may by the force of Nature obtain the Succour which is needful to pepare ones self immediately to the Grace of Justification Ricardus Tapperus and John Driedo Professours in the University of Lovain have taught That God fails not to come to him that makes a good use of his Natural strength by the practise of some Works morally good and that he gives him the Succour of his Grace for to dispose him to the remission of Sins All that is formally contrary to the Decisions of the Church against the Pelagians Yet all these Theologues have pretended to follow the Sense of the Council of Trent I demand then of these Gentlemen who assure us that the Canons of this Council have no ambiguity whence comes this diversity of Senses If the Canons of the Council are not ambiguous why do they suffer Persons who teach Pelagian Errours condemned by Canons clear and precise How can it be that Alphonsus à Castro who is such a Catholick should maintain Semi-Pelagianisme pure with such a violence that he accuses the contrary to his of Impurity and Heresie If it be true that this contrary Opinion be that of the Council of Trent Dominicus à Soto was present at the Council he knew their Spirit and should have known it yet from the time of the Council of Trent he put to light a Book Natura Gratia wherein he maintains by the Canons of the Council all his Semi-Pelagian Opinions At the same time Andrew Vega a Franciscan and Ambrose
Port Royal. I dare assure that no man dare deny that they should adore that Relick which is called the Wood of the true Cross Yea I know none to have condemned Thomas Aquinas who would have the true Cross to be adored with Latria Indeed we know not how else to call the Action of a Person that prostrates himself that kneels and kisses a Relick with Religious Devotion We conceive not how my Lord of Condom can imagine that God takes well what is done when they lift up the Chaste of a Saint where we see a dreadful Concourse of People which do humble and prostrate themselves Though Men say that this Worship hath its Source in God himself and returns thither That which hath not been commanded by God hath not its Source in God and what God disowns returns not to him Here as in the matter of Invocation of Saints they lay a Snare for them which incline to change of Religion They tell him Well then If the Worship of Images and Relicks displease you let it alone No body shall force you to it and you may well enough be saved without that Worship But I conjure them to remember what we have said Men will not be acquitted if leaving a good Religion and entring into a bad one they only can say I will hold me to that which the bad Religion hath of Good and will leave what is not good Men shall answer before God for all the faults of the Church whereinto they have cast themselves and besides the Crime of having partak'd of a false Worship such shall be guilty of the Crime of Hypocrisie ARTICLE VII Of Justification and Merit of Works MY Lord of Condom passes to the matter of Justification and of the Merit of Works He pretends to draw a great Advantage from that that this Dispute is not now so heated as it was heretofore He supposes it to have been a chief Cause of our Separation He adds That our Learned Men contest not now so much upon this Matter as they did formerly and that this important difficulty of Justification is no more considered as Capital Thence he concludes first That our Separation was rash Secondly That we ought to return to that Church out of which we came forth because of a Doctrine whereof we at this day acknowledge the Innocency That is it which these Words signifie We must also confess That the Learned of their Side do no more contest so much upon that matter as they did at the beginning and there are but few but will confess that they needed not have separated for that Point But if this important difficulty of Justification whereof their first Authors made their Fort is not now any more considered as Capital by those who are most Judicious among them We leave them to think what must be judged of their Separation and what might be hoped for towards Peace if they did but get above Preoccupation and would but leave the Spirit of Disputes This is a reflexion which infinitely pleases those Gentlemen they often repeat it The Writers of Port Royal have employed it in their Book of Prejudices and Monsieur Arnaud makes a great Work of it in his Book he hath made against our Morals As those two Books have been answer'd with sufficient exactness this Point was not then forgotten Yet seeing those Gentlemen think good to repeat often their Objections to us they must suffer us to let them see our Answers also Behold then the Reflexions which we oppose to them of my Lord of Condom 1. It 's not altogether true that the difficulty of Justification hath been the Fort of our Reformers It was not there they began One may read a Bull of Leo the Tenth after the Year 1520 against Luther That was the first declaration of War and it 's thence that one may compute the beginning of our Separation That Bull condemus 35 Articles of Luther's Doctrine there is none of them that directly concerns Justification In Conscience though we were agreed about that matter would it be a great advance towards Re-union What would be done with Worship of Saints Service of Images Adoration of the Eucharist the Sacrifice of the Mass and an hundred other things People do little understand matters of Justification and of Grace And what is not popular is not to the People a cause of Separation and can neither be for them a way of Reunion though it were agreed on It would be unhandsom enough and strange if we should go and tell our People The Doctrine of the Roman Church is much more pure about Grace and Justification than it was formerly make no more question hence forward to prostrate your selves before Images invoke Creatures serve the Saints believe that the Body of Christ is in the Bread of the Eucharist to adore that Bread as God and to present every day the Body of Christ in Sacrifice 2. I agree nevertheless That our Reformers have made of the Errours of the Roman Church about Justification a Capital Affair and I maintain that they had reason for it in the State wherein they found the Doctrine of the Roman Church about this Point One may see without Exaggeration that the Roman School before the Council of Trent was Pelagian She taught That Man without the help of Grace can prepare himself to Justification by Works truly good that Man by the strength of Nature may have a serious and a true grief for his Sins by a Principle of Love which loves God better than all things else and that this is the last and next disposition to Grace habitual Justifying that it is a true Merit not indeed of Condignity but of Congruity and that this Contrition coming after to receive its form by the reception of habitual Grace becomes Merit of Condignity for the Kingdom of Heaven So Vasquez explains this Sense and attributes it to Scoto to Gabriel Biel and Cajetan that is to say to the Princes of the School Estius attributes it also to William of Auxer Durandus St. Portien Thomas d'Argentine and Almainus It cannot be denied but that the Franciscans defended this Opinion in the Council of Trent with the utmost Ardor In Conscience had not they reason to rise against such a Sentiment Lewis of Catanea and the Dominicans of his side who maintain'd the Doctrine of Grace according to St. Augustine in the said Council did they not say That they were not able enough to distinguish that Theology from that of Pelagius Those very Persons did they not also go further did they not teach That Man can do without Grace and by the force of Nature all that he doth by the succour of Grace Viz. That he can love God more than all things else to have a true Grief for offending God not only of Attrition by the fear of Pain but of Contrition by a chaste Fear and by a Principle of Love To obey all Evangelical Commands believe truly to be filled with
Catharin Bishop of Minori made other Books whereby they found therein Opinions quite contrary And Catharin also found in the Decisions of the Council the Opinion which he had defended in the Congregations that is That Man may be assured of himself that he is in Grace One cannot avoid it as pretends the Author of the Advertisement in accusing the fair dealing of Fr. Paolo who hath written the History of this Council For the Works of Soto of Vega and of Catharin do subsist at this day And though some of them were no more to be found it would be no less true that they have been But do we need other Proofs to prove the Ambiguity of the Canons of the Council of Trent than the Canons themselves The Author of the Advertisement reproaches Anonymus who hath Answer'd my L. of Condom That he could not cite any one Canon of this Council that is Ambiguous In Truth I know not whether there be any that is not ambiguous in this matter of Justification except those which condemn the Lutherans The first and second of these Canons say That besides the Forces of Human Nature and the Doctrine of the Law Grace is necessary to Man to be justified and for to deserve Eternal life Would not Semi-Pelagians have signed these Canons And will that hinder at this day Thousands of People from teaching with the Semi-Pelagians That Grace is not efficacious of it self but by the Liberty of Man that it is not Grace that determines Man at Conversion that God gives every Man a certain sufficient Grace whereof the good and ill usage do absolutely depend on the Will of Man So that it is Man that distinguishes himself and not Grace that distinguishes Man contrary to what St. Paul saith so precisely Who is he that puts a distinction between thee and another What hast thou that thou hast not received The Third Canon saith That without the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his Succours a Man cannot Believe Love or Repent to obtain the Grace of Justification That is good but what need was there to thrust in a Sicut oportet Man cannot Believe Hope and Love as is needful to receive the Grace of Justification By the favour of this had Word the School of Molina maintains its Pelagianism That without the Grace and the Succour of the Holy Ghost a Man may believe and do true acts of Faith of Hope of Contrition and love God more than all things else And when it is pressed with the Canon of the Council of Trent she saves her self by the Sicut oportet She saith the Canon saith not absolutely That without Grace Man cannot do true Acts of Faith of Love and of Contrition but it saith That he cannot do them in that manner that is needful that is to say That those Acts of Contrition and of Love which are done without Grace are not sufficient for Justification there must intervene some others or that habitual Grace and that of the Sacrament be diffused upon those They that uphold the Doctrine of St. Augustine say to the contrary that the Sense of the Council of Trent is That Man cannot do in any manner those Acts of Love and Contrition without preventing Grace Why did not the Council declare it self about that Methinks the Affair is important enough for the question is no less than for the establishing Pelagianism or for the destruction thereof The Council of Trent will they say hath followed precisely the Sixth Canon of the Second Council of Orenge where the Sicut oportet is also found So the Canon of the Council of Trent is no more ambiguous than that of the Council of Orenge It 's true but the difference is That the Ambiguity of the Canon of the Council of Orenge is innocent and that of the Council of Trent is affected The Council of Orenge could not foresee that Men would abuse this Term as they have done but the Council of Trent could not be ignorant that they would abuse it and put it in expressly that they might not condemn the School of Thomas nor that of Scotus seeing they saw that the Scholasticks had abused that Word which had slipt in innocently into the decisions of the Church they were not excusable in putting it in again into a new Canon to give place to the same Abuses The Fifth Canon which saith That Free Will after the Sin of Adam is neither lost nor quenched or extinct can have a good Sense for we know well that by Sin Men are not become Marbles and Stones Stocks and Stumps But who sees not that this may be explained in favour of those who maintain That Man in the state of Corruption may fulfil God's Law perfectly and do Works that are truly good A Doctrine absolutely Pelagian condemned by the Council of Orenge which declares That the Vertues of Pagans is but Cupidity and Self-love A Doctrine opposed to that Maxim of St. Augustine Homo male utens libero Arbitrio perdidit se liberum Arbitrium c. Ita cum libero peccaretur Arbitrio victore peccato amissum est liberum Arbitrium Man in making ill use of his Free Will hath been lost and his Free Will also In his sinning freely Sin is become Victor and Free Will was lost that is to say that he is so deliberated that without the help of God he can no more turn to the side of Good neither of the good Moral nor of the good Supernatural The Seventh Canon orders That all the Works which are done before Justification in whatsoever manner they are done are not truly Sins and do not merit the hatred of God That is true if by these Actions which precede Justification they understand Acts of Repentance and of Faith which ought to precede Pardon of Sins and which are done by the Succours of the Holy Ghost and of preventing Grace But it is not clear that this Canon doth favour those that say That the Works of the Infidels done without Grace may be good Works and that their Vertues were true Vertues A Doctrine as Pelagian as any that can be so By those Works which precede Justification it is as easie to understand the Works done without Grace as those that are done by preventing Grace I do not here make an Examen of the Council of Trent therefore will I not advance further this Chapter of Ambiguities It 's not the hundred part of Observations of this Nature which might be made and upon the Sixth Session where the Matter of Grace is treated and upon all other Sessions This would be nevertheless enough to let Men see that we have no reason to be satisfied with the Council of Trent about the Manner wherewith they have explained Justification 4. But it is not the only Ambiguity of his Canons which gives us a just subject of Complaint and will afford us a lawful reason to refuse eternally the subscription of those Canons which they have made about
Justification It is for Example the odious Term which they give unto Doctrines the most innocent in the World The Seventh Canon is made to perswade That we look upon as very Sins the motions of Faith and Contrition that ought to precede Justification Which is not so The Eighth supposes that we say That every fear of Hell is a Sin and serves only to render Sinners more Criminal which is far distant from our Sentiments The 9 th the 19 th the 21 th and the 27 th condemn us as if we did teach That for to be Justified we need only to have a naked Faith simple and destitute of the society of good Works A Doctrine which we most abhor The 10 th and the following have given place to those Tragical Declamations against Imputed Righteousness whereof these Gentlemen acknowledge this day the Truth and Innocence So the Justice of Jesus Christ is not only imputed but actually communicated to his Faithful Ones by the operation of the Holy Ghost saith my Lord of Condom The 13 th and 14 th impute an absurd Doctrine to us That for obtaining remission of Sins and Justification we must believe that we have already received it 5. Behold yet another Reason of our refusal to Subscribe the Decrees of this Council about Justification It is because it condemns for Heresies those Opinions which we believe to be sound and true The 12 th Canon the 15 th and 16 th in giving an odious and little faithful Turn to our Doctrine upon the Certainty that we may have that we are in Grace and that we are Predestinate would snatch away from us a Truth which we believe to be of absolute necessity for the tranquillity of the faithful Soul It 's Confidence in God and in his Promises which renders us certain of our Salvation for so long a time as we are in actual obedience to his Commands The Canon 17 th and 23 th which impute unto us to believe That Men are Predestinated to Evil which we do abhor would at the same time take away from us a Truth clearly couched in the Word of God and which hath been acknowledg'd by St. Augustine It is That God calls no others but those whom he hath Predestinated and Justifies no others but such as he hath so called and will Glorifie no others but such as he hath so Justified that is to say That the Grace which God gives the Reprobate is not a Grace truly Justifying and that Justification is never lost The Canon 18 th and 25 th tend to ruine a very considerable Truth viz. That in our best Works there are some defects A Sentiment which we account so important that without it according to us cannot be preserved our Christian Humility And at the same time those same Canons impute to us to say That all the good Works of the Faithful are mortal Sins the which we abhor The 28 th sets down a Doctrine which we cannot receive it is That Faith without Charity and without Works is a true Faith 6. In fine We cannot subscribe to the Doctrine of this Decree because that although the Canons thereof were in some places capable of receiving a good Sense in the Theory yet they give them a very bad one in the Practise For Example the 18 th Canon that saith That Man can fulfil the Law of God when he is upheld by his Grace And the 38 th which expounds in what manner our Works are Merits might be received with the Glosses of Monsieur de Condom but they cannot be suffered in that Sense which the practise of the Vulgar gives them I maintain that the Devouts of the Roman Church believe to be saved by the Merit of their Works and to gain Paradise by their Mortifications as Men gain a moderate Reward by the greatest of all Labours Able Men among the Moderns do speak of this Matter like my Lord of Condom I grant but Vulgar Predicators deliver this Doctrine in a most scandalous manner and most approaching to Pelagianisme The Canons of the Council may receive this popular Sense which they give it in their Practise as well as that which Able Men of the Church of Rome give thereto in their Theory But are we obliged to receive and prefer the Sense of Theory which doth nothing and which is shut up among a few Persons to this Sense of Practise which is diffused through the World Why have Men so much jealousie for this Term Merit which is proud and opposite to Christian Humility Though Men strive much they will never blot out of it those Idea's of Pride which Use hath fastened thereto Whilst it is said to Men that their Works merit Eternal life they will always perswade them selves that those Works are of a great Perfection and that there is a proportion between what they give to God and what God renders to them Though we were different but only in Terms were it not better to speak with us seeing our style carries one necessarily to Humility than with such Canons whose Expressions do carry one naturally to Pride Whereupon are founded those proud Opinions that in shutting up themselves in a Convent that in making Vows of Celibate Poverty and Chastity in doing voluntary Mortifications Men have Righteousness and Merits to spare so as to impart to such as have not enough and that Men can have Works of Supererogation Whence comes all that I say but from the Theology of this Council and of that of its Interpreters In a word to shorten I say there are at least Four Reasons for which we cannot yield to the Doctrine of Justification in that manner wherein the Council hath explained it 1. The first is That by its Ambiguities and its uncertain Expressions it hath left Semi-Pelagianisme entirely untouched and even Pelagianisme it self too The Second That it condemns us unjustly attributing to us Opinions which we do not hold at all The Third That it condemns such Truths which we may not and ought not to forsake The Fourth That its Expressions do conduce naturally to the Sense which we give it and do oppose as appears by the Practise of the People and of its Devouts and by the Books of the Demi-Doctors of the Roman Church My Lord of Condom may see presently that without casting our selves upon Questions of Subtilty as he speaks there are yet many things that separate us from him about the Article of Justification ARTICLE VIII Of Satisfactions Indulgences and Purgatory MY Lord of Condom hath reason to treat of Indulgences and Satisfactions after Justification for Indulgences are the Justifications of Men and Justification is the Indulgence of God But he must permit me to tell him that he hath no reason to treat this Affair as a Controversie of Nothing and that should not separate us from the Roman Church They say that Catholicks teach with a common accord That only Jesus Christ God and Man together was capable by the infinite
Dignity of his Person to offer to God a sufficient Satisfaction for our Sins but that He applies to us that infinite Satisfaction in two manners either in giving us an intire Absolution without reserving any Pains which he doth in Baptism or else in commuting that Eternal pain into Temporal pains Pains whereof the Church remains Mistress and when that is relaxed that is called Indulgence Thence must we not conclude say they Neither that Jesus Christ did not intirely satisfie for us nor that we satisfie for our selves for some part of the Pain which is due to our Sins seeing that which is called Satisfaction is only after all this but the application of the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ After this the Author of the Advertisement cries out with an air of Confidence What will they say now If those Gentlemen please to hear us they shall see that we have yet somewhat to say As they have represented their Doctrine about this as they thought good they will permit us to represent it such as it is in effect and that is it we are going to do when we shall have advertized That they must not here recall us to the Council of Trent as they do upon other Matters because the Council says nothing about this I say Nothing literally meant They that have read the History of that Council know that the Prelates and the Theologians that made it up the Ambassadours of Princes which had perceived the uselessness thereof the Pope and the Council of Rome who did maintain the Charges of it and who feared the Decisions thereof All those Persons I say wearied with the long Continuation of the Council after they had finished the Matter of Orders which had held there Ten whole Months and that of Marriage which had occupied them four Months more resolved to end it at any rate So that in three Weeks time they strangled all the Business that remained which might have kept the Council at work as long as it had lasted already and one of those Matters was that of Indulgences about which they contented themselves to Pronounce That the use thereof was saving that the distribution of them was to be done by the Church but that the Abuses thereof were to be retrenched Behold in what manner was terminated in three Words that which all Christendom had conceived to be one of the greatest Affairs of the Council which had been the Scandal of all Europe and the first occasion that caused a Banner to be lifted up against the Roman Church It 's true that Ten or Twelve years before the 14 th Session held under Julius the Third did treat of Satisfaction in treating of Penitence but it said nothing of Indulgences So that they must give us leave to search out the Opinion of the Roman Church about this Affair in the Practise and Decisions of Doctours adding thereto what the Council of Trent hath said of Satisfaction 1. They say That our Sins deserve two sorts of Pain Eternal Pains and Temporal Pains 2. They grant That the Merit of Jesus Christ is infinite and that if God would this Merit could could be applied to nullifie Temporal Pains as well as Eternal Pains 3. But they hold That Jesus Christ would not suffer for to exempt his Elect from Temporal Pains or at least that he leaves absolutely to the Church the application of his infinite Satisfaction with respect to these Temporal Pains 4. They distinguish the Guilt from the Pain and they say That God forgives all the Guilt and retains one part of the Pain The Holy Council declares That it 's false and contrary to the Word of God that the Guilt can never be pardoned unless all the Pain be remitted 5. They say That the Justice of God requires this Reservation That the Sins that follow Baptism be punished by Temporal Pain Divine Justice seems to require That they who have sinned after Baptism be received into Grace otherwise then those who have sinned through Ignorance before Baptism 6. Behold the Uses which the Council finds in these Satisfactions 1. It 's to serve as a Bit and Bridle to Sinners 2. To drive out the ill Habits by the practice of opposite Vertues 3. To turn away the Pains which might be sent from God 4. To render us conformable to Jesus Christ in that we suffer to satisfie our Sins as Jesus Christ hath suffered to satisfie for those very Sins 5. To chasten and punish Sinners for their preceding Sins Is it not an admirable thing that the Council among those Reasons have forgotten none but that of my Lord of Condom according to whom Satisfactions have no other use but to make application of the Infinite Satisfactien of our Lord Jesus Christ The Council as well as he pretends That these Human Satisfactions do no prejudice to the infinite Merit of Jesus Christ But it is because not being able of our selves or sufficient to any thing we receive of Jesus Christ power to satisfie and to bring forth Fruits worthy of Repentance These are the Words of the Council This Reason is not that of Monsieur de Condom and the Council might more briefly have said if they had been in the same Thought The Satisfactions which the Church imposes do no prejudice to the Merit of Jesus Christ because they are but Applications of the infinite Merit of our Saviour 7. They say That these Pains which remain to be suffered after that the Guilt and Eternal Pains have been remitted are the same pain of Sense which the Sinners should have suffered in Hell stripping it only of its Eternity 8. They say That this Infernal Pain being Temporal may be redeemed by Penal Works and that those Works are truly and properly Satisfactory In following the Sense of the whole Church we will labour to prove That by the Penal Works whereof we have spoken Men satisfie truly and properly to God for the Pain which remains to be paid after that the Guilt is remitted 9. They say That the Church is Mistress of these Satisfactory Pains and that she hath the Right of imposing or relaxing them and they are these Relaxations of Pains which they call Indulgences 10. That there is a Treasure of these Indulgences made up of the Satisfactions of Jesus Christ and of those of the Saints which may be applied to them that are obliged to bear the Pain of their Sins after that the Guilt hath been remitted to them by the Sacrament of Penitence 11. That there is in all good Works of the Just a double respect the one of Merit the other of Satisfaction That that of Merit cannot be applied to another because God rewards Works beyond their Merits but that of Satisfaction may be applied to other And that because a Man may do of those painful Works much more than he hath need of or may suffer by the Providence Dispensation or by the Persecution of Men those Temporal Pains which go far
possible to deny it There is no Heresie whereof they would not render us guilty They have said that with Arrius we deny the Eternity of the Son and his Deity that with Nestorius we establish two Persons in Jesus Christ that with Eutyches we confound his two Natures They are two opposite Heresies and which cannot subsist together It matters not all is well enough if we be but calumniated Hath not Bellarmine made a Preface to his Book de Christo expresly to prove that we are Nestorians Sabellians Arrians and Eutychians Hath not Gregory of Valencia made a thick Book de Unitate Trinitate against the Lutherans and the Calvinists asserting that the Lutherans are truly of the Opinion of Servetus and that the Calvinists deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ And doth not Father Cresset say but newly That we hate the Virgin because we hate her Son In regard of Free Will they would have Us to be in the Party of the Manichees who said That Men were by their Nature determined to good or to evil and that they are not carried thereto by Choice and by Will In regard of Good Works they attribute to Us the horrid Opinion of the Gnosticks that said That the Spirital man may plunge himself into the most abominable Crimes of the Flesh without fear of the least Pollution or any Condemnation They say That we deny the necessity of Good Works to Salvation that we make a vile Sinner after a small act of Faith and Repentance as just as the Holy Virgin that we make Men to be Just by the Righteousness of another as if we should make a black Stuff to be white with the whiteness of another Stuff that we do cloath our Just man with an imputed Justice under which are hid the most horrid moral Impurities that we lead men to Salvation by the way of Crimes Murthers and Adulteries that we render the effects of Predestination infallible like the Mahumetans so that a Man Predestinate living like a Devil cannot fail to become happy like an Angel That we would have an Adulterer a Fornicator yea a Man guilty of the Vilest disorders may be as assured of his Salvation as Jesus Christ that our Lord Jesus Christ despaired that he was damned that we are Enemies to the Saints In fine Who could number all the Calumnies wherewith they load us to render us odious That is but a small part thereof And the most terrible of all it 's that though we justifie our selves never so often and tell them we abhor all those Heresies that we detest them that we combat them though we explain our selves never so much and declare that the Words so abused are taken in a Counter-sense though we cry out against the Calumny protest our Innocency formally reject all the Consequences imputed to us that comes to nothing and they still return to the like again We must needs be Hereticks at any rate and they repeat against Us this day all those Calamities with the same air of Confidence as if we had nothing to answer thereto or had never answered the same We should more easily bear with those Excesses if that we had none to complain of but those small Declaimers who do harangue on Shop-boards and who preach in the Markets from the Steps of a Cross If those Outrages were done Us but by those little Scribes who are void of Science Name Spirit Honour and Conscience whereof the World is full But it 's impossible not to lose our Patience when we see Authors that are grave and able learn'd and famous compose great Volumes whereof all the Pages are soiled with those black Slanders whereto we have answered an hundred times When we cannot blame Ignorance and Insufficiency we cannot but complain of unsincere dealings and say that such a Course is not honest It 's an inseparable Character of the false Church Hereticks have always dealt thus with the Orthodox They have still calumniated them and have disfigured by their Imputations the purest and holiest Doctrines we need but to have read a few of the Holy Fathers to be assured thereof But the true Church was always most tender of Sincerity She would never slander her Adversaries and would never disjoyn Zeal from fair dealing Here is another kind of foul dealing that appears less Criminal it 's that which flatters Religion whereof she draws the Picture which dissembles her deformities and gives an air of Innocence and Purity to all This Artifice seems to be innocent every one should be permitted to make himself known by his best sorts and shew its fairest side And this is a Method that hath been extreamly used for some years of late for to defend the Roman Church There are two ways of defending her one is in rejecting the Manage of Policy in using the most ordinary and common Expressions In saying for Example That part of Religious Worship is due to Saints that they may be invok'd as Intercessours with God as they to whom God hath given under himself the Government of the World that Temples may be built Fasts appointed celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass to their Honour make Vows to them and yield to them part of all that which may be called Religion So speaks Vasquez that the Sense of the Catholick Church confirm'd by Tradition and perpetual Use is that there is due to Saints a Sacred Adoration In saying that one may ask of them whatever is ask'd of God Health Protection Remission of Sins Salvation Grace and Glory So that we pray not to them as to the first Authors of these Graces In saying that one must reverence adore and salute the Images of the most holy Virgin Mother of God of the glorious Angels and of all the Saints and that all those that are not of that mind ought to be Anathematized In saying That the Sacrifice of the Mass is a true Sacrifice and so called properly that it 's not a simple Commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross but a Propitiatory Sacrifice which is offered for the Pains for the Satisfactions and for other Necessities of the Faithful In thundering out which Anathema's against all that would not receive those Propositions and all others in the very Sense of the Church There is a second Manner of defending the Opinions and Practises of the Roman Church that is in sweetning them In saying for Example That the Worship of Saints is Nothing at the bottom that Invocations addressed to them are not of another Natnre but such as are made to living Saints when we recommend our selves to their Prayers That the Scandal taken from the Worship of Images is a Scandal ill taken that at the bottom they are set in the Church but for the use of Commemoration that human Satisfactions are no prejudice to those of Jesus Christ because they serve only to apply the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ The first Method was in this regard in the way of very
there is no reason to say That Men must adore Images that there is no reason to fasten any virtue thereto to imagine that an Image of our Lady doth more Miracles than another that its blame worthy to carry them about in pomp to prostrate ones self before them to place them on Altars to make Vows and Pilgrimages to them and to buâ—n Incense to them as formerly they did to the false Gods If Invocation of Saints be done in the same Spirit as the Prayers which we present to the Faithful alive to pray for us It 's to accuse all those who do Invocate the Saints in another Spirit After all that I demand of those Gentlemen Why they do seek for an Extraordinary Turn That which they had used hitherto either was good reasonable and proper to give just Idea's of the Doctrine of the Roman Church or it was not so If it was not reason it is they should take another But how can it be that for so many years they have defended the Roman Church by so many Works without finding the proper Turn to give a just Idea of her Doctrine It 's a blindness of the preceding Doctors hardly to be conceived It 's a good hap for my Lord of Condom to have first found out the true sense of the Doctrine of the Church whereof one cannot suspect the cause But if the Turn which my Lord of Condom hath found out is different in that thing it self that it's different from others doth it not condemn them If that which he saith to us be the only true Sense of the Church all other Senses which Doctors have given it are false Senses and consequently he condemns all those that have not spoken like him Without doubt my Lord of Condom will say It was not his design to say any thing new that his Explications of the Doctrine of the Church are the Sense of the Canons of the Councils and of the decisions of the Doctors But if he pretended not to say any thing Extraordinary whence then comes the great Noise which those Gentlemen have made of that Work Can they look for so great Honour from a Thing that should have been said by all other Authors Whence is it that they have begg'd Approbations from all parts of the World That they put amongst those Approbators Cardinals Bishops yea the Pope himself For a thing which all the World had said should there be need of so mony Props seeing it could not be combated nor question'd Why doth my Lord of Condom at the end of his Work shew that he would not have us examine the different Means which the Catholick Theologues have used to establish or to cleaâ— up the Doctrine of the Council of Trent If he be agreed with the Doctors of his fide hath he cause to fear lest we should compare his Senses with theirs And is it not clear that he confesses thereby that he stands in great opposition to them If my Lord of Condom hath brought to light but the true and ancient Sense of the Church why doth he say at the end of his Book that he hath ruined all Disputes for that is it which these words signifie For to s y on this Treatise something solid c. they must shew that this Explication leaves all Disputes in their intire state He pretends then that his Explication must make all Disputes to cease I do not believe that he pretends thereto by the force of the Reasons whereby he hath upheld his cause For a little Book that only explains and which doth not prove cannot cause Disputes to cease by way of Discussion If it were true that the Sense which my Lord of Condom doth give is the Sense of the Roman Catholick Church that it should be received by both Parties and that it would not leave Disputes in their whole state it were true also that it would be some thing which the gravest Authors had not yet perceived For hitherto all the Divines of the Roman Catholick Church have verily believed that the Controversies about Images Invocation of Saints Indulgences Satisfactions were intire Disputes and most real The Council of Trent hath without doubt believed so for if their Sense had been that which my Lord of Condom gives and that it 's a Sense which leaves not Disputes whole why hath it pronounc'd Anathema's against the Lutherans and Zuinglians about things whereof it's decisions made all Disputes to vanish Let 's deal truly Did not the Council fulminate and condemn those People They did not then believe that the Sense of their Canons could easily be reconciled with the Doctrine of Zuinglius and of Luther Besides that I do not well conceive how my Lord of Condom can defend himself for having brought to light a Sense that was unknown to all that have Written and to the Prelates of the Council of Trent themselves Without doubt those Prelates pronounced Oracles without understanding them and more than an Age after an Interpreter is come who hath discovered that which the Holy Spirit had hitherto kept secret But it imports not whether my Lord of Condom be the first or only Man that hath understood the Council of Trent to the Exclusion of the Council it self he cannot hinder us from concluding That in establishing his Sense as the only good and as the Doctrine of his Church he condemns all others which the Doctors have given hitherto and therefore he acts for us and favours our Cause as much as it can be favoured Although the Explications of my Lord of Condom should terminate some different we should not be obliged to believe upon his Word that his Sense should be that of the Council of Trent It hath reproached to these Gentlemen that these Explications were against the Bull of Pius the Fourth which expresly forbids all Explications of that Council These be its own words To avoid the Confusions and Disorders that might arise if it were permitted to every One to bring to light their Commentaries and Interpretations upon the Decrees of the Council by Authority Apostolical we forbid all Persons Ecclesiastick or Laick of whatsoever Dignity Condition Honour or Power whatsoever and all Prelates under pain of being Interdicted the Entrance of the Church and others under pain of Excommunication to undertake without our Authority Commentaries Glosses Annotations Observations or any other kind of Interpretations under whatsoever Name neither under the very pretence of maintaining the Decrees better or Executing or any other Colour And if any find there is any thing obscure less clear needing Interpretation we Ordain he should ascend to the place which the Lord hath chosen that is to the Apostolick Seat which is the Master of all the Faithful and whereof the Holy Council it self hath acknowledged the Authority in a manner so full of respect After that should it be permitted to any private Man to give to the Council a Sense unknown to the whole Earth unknown even to the
he see Altars and thereon a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of a God-man who every day after some Mystical Ceremonies descends from Heaven and comes to place himself really under the Accidents of the Consecrated Bread and Wine He sees I say a Sacrifice of Human Flesh but invisible which is done with a great Shew and Attendance of Ceremonies for the Propitiation of the Sins of the Dead and for all the Necessities of the Living He sees an Object which appears to be meer Bread which he must be made to adore as his God his Redeemer and Master He sees Men that make their Prayers and that sing Sacred Hymns but he meets with the Veil of a Language strange and unknown which is diffused through all this Worship and doth conceal it quite from Vulgar Eyes By the favour of an Interpreter he penetrates through this Veil and under it he sees Prayers and Invocations addressed to Creatures whereto are given the magnificent Names of Mediators Mother of Mercifulness Queen of Heaven Refuge of Sinners Gate of Paradice c. from whom Men do request to be delivered from Maladies recovery of Health to be cured of the Languors of their Souls to be loosed from the Bonds of their Sins to receive increase of Virtues to be delivered from Hell and to be put into the possession of the Glory of Heaven by their Merits and by their Intercession He sees a Religion abounding in Ceremonies whereof the Ministers are cloath'd with Habits extraordinary and mystical He sees their Crosses Holy Water and a great external Shew altogether pompous and compounded with an incredible Number of different Parts Piercing yet further he sees Men set upon their Tribunals at the feet whereof they shew him other Men on their Knees confessing their Sins to them and expect Remission from them and he hears those Spiritual Judges on those Tribunals who impose on Sinners Penitences Fastings Pilgrimages Hair-Cloth Cilices rough Shifts to satisfie thereby God and the Church who preach to them That all the Sins committed before Baptism are expiated solely and entirely by the Blood of Jesus Christ but that every Man must satisfie for his Sins committed after Baptism That tell them That Men must labour to merit Eternal life by good Works That teach them That the good Works wherein God takes pleasure are among other Devotions for the Saints Pilgrimages Vows tedious Tautologies of certain Prayers observed in the Honour of some of those Saints and of their Images Who give them to observe a long List of Ecclesiastical Laws about Fasts distinctions of Meats Corporal Mortifications That declare to them That the Non-observance of those Laws of the Church will damn them as much as the violation of Gods Commands Which tell them also That after this life they cannot hope to enter immediately into Heaven but that they must pass through a place of Torment where they shall be examined happily for many Ages by a cruel Fire until they have intirely satisfied for those Sins for which they could not make Satisfaction during this life He sees Priests upon those Tribunals to give with a Tone of Authority and of Power the Remission of Sins to those Penitents and to tell them I absolve you They hear them say That Men must receive their Orders and those of the Church as so many Sentences from Heaven That this Church is infallible and exempt from Errour that She is Judge without Appeal of all Debates That the Holy Scripture in regard of us holds her Authority but only from Her that we could not know the Divinity of the Word of God but only by the Testimony of the Church that She is the Interpreter of her Sense and that the Interpretations which she gives though they seem contrary to Sense to Reason and even to some places of this very Scripture ought to be received with a Soveraign Submission Above those Men which are only called Priests he sees several Dignities but above all he sees a great Monarch Spiritual and Temporal who calls himself Jesus Christs Lieutenant the Vible Head of the Church the Mouth of God who pronounces Oracles and who can never Erre who is above Emperours and Kings who can establish them and who can destroy them Behold what our Infidel may see in the Roman Church Neither he nor I do pronounce any thing we say not whether it be good or bad Going out from thence he enters into the Temples of the Protestants wherein he sees nothing of what he had seen in that place whence he came forth He sees there no Images no Altars no Sacrifices no Pomp no Ceremony They tell him for a reason of this difference God is jealous of his Honour he would not have any Service done to Images he hath expresly forbidden it in the Second Command of his Law The Sacrifices of Christians are Praises and Thanksgivings Works of Mercy Offerings and Alms these are the Oblation of the Heart and Affections and their Perfumes are their Prayers We have no Altars for since that Jesus Christ did Sacrifice his Sacred Person for our Salvation having no more Sacrifices we need no more Altars Our Infidel lending his Ear to what is said hears indeed nothing but Prayers and Hymns which are Sung Sermons Prayers addressed to God no Angels no Saints invoak'd They tell him Prayer is the Principal of our Homages and the first act of our Adoration therefore we reserve it for God We believe that we should offer a great Wrong to the Divinity if we did divide his Honour between Him and his Creatures They shew to this Infidel a small number of Sacraments administred with great simplicity Nothing is disguised from him They tell him What you see on this Table is true Bread and true Wine but it 's Bread and Wine mystical It is the Sacrament of Jesus Christ crucified it is the Symbol of his Flesh and Blood and the precious Pledge of the Love of God the Seal of our Justification and One of the Means of our Sanctification But the Grace which is adjoyned doth not destroy Nature Instead of causing him to adore what his Senses tell him to be Bread They tell him Take heed lest under any Pretence whatever you render to the Creature that Honour which is due only to the Creator for he that said Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve will not be paid with any Excuses it will not avail to say I supposed that my Saviour came under that appearance of Bread Our Infidel sees a Religion which keeps nothing secret from him under pretence of Mystery They do not tell him about the Word of God Walk therein as in a dangerous Way either read not at all or read with a Spirit of Submission for all that the Church hath taught you Do not believe what your Eyes will seem to tell you about your Lectures and whatsoever you may meet withal conclude nothing that may be opposite to the Faith
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