not annexed to the sensible species but to the proper substance of his flesh which is living and life-giving because of the Divinity which is united to it Upon which account all those who believe the real presence ought not to have any difficulty to communicate under one sole species because they there receive all that is essential to this Sacrament together with a plenitude so secure because there being now no real seperation betwixt the Body and the Blood as hath been said we receive entirely and without division him who is solely capable to satiate us This is the solid foundation upon which the Church interpreting the precept of Communion as declared we may receive the Sanctification which this Sacrament carries with it under one sole species and if she have reduced her Children to this sole species it was not out of disesteem of the other seeing on the contrary she did it to hinder those Irreverences which the confusion and negligence of people had occasioned in these later ages reserving to her self the re-establishment of communion under both kinds according as it should become more advantagious to Peace and Unity Catholic Divines have made it appear to those of the pretended Reformation that they have themselves made use of several such like Interpretations in what belongs to the use of the Sacrament but above all they had reason to remark this which is taken out of the 12 chap. of their discipline Title of the Lords Supper art 7. where we find these words The Bread of the Lords Supper ought to be administred to those who cannot drink wine upon their making protestation that it is not out of contempt and endeavouring what they can possibly to obviate all Scandal even by approaching the cup as neer their mouths as they are able They have judged by this regulation that both species were not by the institution of JESVS CHRIST essential to the Communion otherwise they ought to have absolutely refused the Sacrament to those who could not receive it whole and entire and not to give it them after a manner contrary to that which JESVS CHRIST had commanded in which case their disability would have been their excuse But our adversaries conceived it would be an excessive rigour not to allow at least one of the species to those who could not receive the other and as this condescendence has no ground in Scripture they must acknowledge with us the words by which JESVS CHRIST proposes to us the two species are liable to some interpretation and that this interpretation ought to be declared by the authority of the Church But it might seem as if this article of their discipline which was made in the Synod of Poitiers held in the year 1560 had been reformed by the Synod of Vertueil held in the year 1567. where it is said the company is not of opinion the bread should be administred to those who would not receive the Cup. These two Synods nevertheless are no ways opposite That of Vertueil speaks only of those who will not receive the Cup And that of Poitiers of these only who cannot In effect notwithstanding the Synod of Vertueil this article remains in their discipline and has been also approved by a latter Synod then that of Vertueil by the Synod of la Rochell in 1571 where this article was review'd and put into that stare in which it now is But supposing the Synods of the pretended reform'd Religion had differed in their sentiments it would only follow that the matter in question regards not Faith and that it is of the number of those which are at the Churches disposal according to their own Principles SECT XVIII The written and unwritten Word THERE remains nothing more now but to explicate what Catholics believe touching the Word of God and the Authority of the Church JESVS CHRIST having laid the Foundation of his Church by Preaching the unwritten Word was the first Rule of Christianity and when the Writings of the New Testament were added this unwritten Word did not upon that account lose its Authority which makes us reiceive with equal veneration all that was ever taught by the Apostles whether by Writing or byword of Mouth as St. Paul himself has expresly declared And it is a most certain sign 2 Thes 2.14 a Doctrine comes from the Apostles when it is universally embraced by all Christian Churches without any possibility of shewing its beginning We cannot chuse but receive all that is established after this manner with the submission due to Divine Authority and we are persuaded those of the Pretended Reformation who are not obstinate are in the bottom of their Hearts of the same Opinion it being impossible to believe a Doctrine received from the beginning of the Church can flow from any other source than that of the Apostles Wherefore our Adversaries ought not to wonder if we who are careful to gather together all our Fathers have left us should conserve the Depositum of Tradition as well as that of the Scriptures SECT XIX The Authority of the Church THE Church being established by God to be the Guardian of Scripture and Tradition we receive the Canonical Scriptures from her and let our Adversaries say what they will we doubt not but it is her Authority which principally determines them to reverence as Divine Books the Canticle of Canticles which has so few visible marks of a Prophetical Inspiration the Epistle of St. James which Luther rejected and that of St. Jude which might appear suspected because of some Apocriphal Books cited in it In fine it can only be from this Authority they receive the whole Body of Scripture which all Christians accept as Divine before their reading of it has made them sensible of the Spirit of God in it Being then inseparably bound as we are to the Holy Authority of the Church by means of the Scriptures which we receive from her Hands we learn Tradition also from her and by the means of Tradition we learn the true sence of Scripture Upon which account the Church professes she tells us nothing from her self and that she invents nothing new in her Doctrine she does nothing but declare the Divine Revelation by the interiour direction of the Holy Ghost who is given to her as her teacher That Dispute which was raised in the very time of the Apostles upon account of the Ceremonies of the Law shews clearly that the Holy Ghost explicates himself by the Church and their Acts have by the method by which that first Contest was decided taught all succeeding Ages by what Authority all other differences are to be ended So that as often as there shall happen any Disputes to cause a Division amongst the Faithful the Church will interpose her Authority and her Pastors assembled will say after the Apostles Act. 15.28 It his seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us And when she has spoken her Children will be taught they ought not to begin
was It remains at present that we beg of God to grant they may read a Work without bitterness which is published only to instruct them The Success is in his hands who can alone touch the heart He knows the limits he has fixt to the Progress of Errour and the miseries of his afflicted Church by the loss of so great a number of her Children But we cannot hinder our selves from hoping some great effects towards the reunion of Christians under a Pope who exercises so piously and with so perfect a zeal free from interest the most holy Function in the World and under a King who prefers before all the Conquests that have enlarged his Kingdom those that might gain him his own Subjects to the Church AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH IN MATTERS of CONTROVERSIE SECT I. The Design of this Treatise AFter a Contestation for above an Age with those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion Matters from whence they took the ground of their Separation ought to be sufficiently cleared and their minds disposed to a right conception of the Sentiments of the Catholic Church So that to me nothing seems more proper then to propose her Tenets plainly and simply and to distinguish them right from those which have been falsely imputed to her In effect I have upon several occasions taken notice that the aversion which these Gentlemen have to most of our Sentiments is grounded upon some false Ideas which they have formed to themselves concerning them or else upon some certain words which are so offensive to them that they immediately stop there and never come so far as to consider the grounds of things Upon which account I thought nothing could be more beneficial than to explicate to them what the Church has defined in the Council of Trent concerning those points which keep them at farthest distant from us without medling with that which they are accustomed to object either against particular Doctors or against those Tenets which are neither necessarily nor universally received For all Parties agree and M. Daille himself is of that Opinion Apol. c. 6. that it is a very unreasonable thing to attribute the Sentiments of particular Persons to a whole body and he adds that no separation ought to be but upon the account of Articles authenticly established to the belief and observance of which all Persons are obliged I will not meddle then with any thing but the Decrees of the Council of Trent because in them the Church has given her Decision upon these matters now in agitation and what I shall say for the better understanding of those Decisions shall be what is approved of in the Church and shall manifestly appear conformable to the Doctrine of this Council This Exposition of our Doctrine will produce two good effects The first that many disputes will wholly vanish because it will appear thev are only grounded upon some erroneous explications of our belief The second that those disputes which remain will not appear according to the Principles of the Pretended Reform'd so Capital as at the first they endeavoured to represent them and that according to the same Principles they contain nothing any ways injurious to the grounds of Faith SECT II. Those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion acknowledg That the Catholic Church embraces all the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion ANd to begin with the fundamental and principal Articles of Faith these Gentlemen of the Pretended Reform'd Religion must of necessity acknowledge they are believed and professed in the Catholic Church If they will have them to consist in believing that we must adore one only God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that we must put our trust in God alone through his Son who became man was Crucified and rose again for us they know in their Consciences that we profess this Doctrine and if they add those other Articles which are comprehended in the Apostles Creed they do not doubt also but that we receive them all without exception and that we have a pure and true knowledge of them M. Daille has writ a Treatise intituled Faith founded upon the Scriptures in which after having exposed all the Articles of Faith held by the Pretended Reform'd Churches he tells us they are beyond all contestation Part 3. â— 1. that the Roman Church professes to believe them that in reality they do not hold all our Opinions but that we hold all their Articles of Faith This Minister then cannot unless he destroy his own Faith deny but that we believe all the principal Articles of the Christian Religion But tho' M. Daille had not granted thus much the thing is manifest in it self and all the world knows that we believe all those Articles which Protestants call Fundamental so that sincerity it self demands they should without dispute grant that we have not really rejected any of them The Pretended Reform'd who see the advantages we may draw from this acknowledgment are desirous to deprive us of them by saying that we destroy those Articles by interposing others contrary to them This is what they endeavour to perswade by Consequences drawn from our Doctrine but the same M. Daille whose authority I alledge once more not so much to convince them by the Testimony of one of their most Learned Ministers as because what he says is in it self evident tells them what they ought to think of such kind of Consequences supposing ill ones might be drawn from our Doctrine See what he writes in his Letter to M. Monglat upon account of his Apologie Altho' the Opinion of the Lutherans as well as that of Rome does according to us infer the distruction of the Humanity of JESUS CHRIST yet this Consequence cannot be attributed to them without Calumny seeing they do formally reject it There is nothing more essential to the Christian Religion then the reality of the Human Nature in JESVS CHRIST and yet tho' the Lutherans hold a Doctrine from whence is inferred the destruction of this Capital verity by Consequences which the Pretended Reform'd judge to be evident yet they have not scrupled to offer to Communicate with them because their Opinion has no poyson in it Chap. 7. as M. Daille tells us in his Apologie And their National Synode held at Charenton 1631 admits them to the Holy Table upon this ground that they agree in the principal and Fundamental points of Religion It is then a certain Maxim established amongst them that they must not in these cases look upon the Consequences which may be drawn from a Doctrine but purely upon what he proposes and acknowledges who teaches it So that when they infer by Consequences which they pretend to draw from our Doctrine that we do not sufficiently acknowledg that Soveraign Glory which is due to God nor the quality of Saviour and Mediator in JESVS CHRIST nor the infinite value of his Sacrifice nor the superabundant Plenitude of his Merits we may defend our selves without
we have spoken come not from any defect in the payment but from a certain order which he has established to retain us in a saving discipline by just apprehensions But if they also tell us we believe we can of our own selves satisfy for some part of the pain due to our sins we can with confidence assure them the contrary appears by the maxims we have established Which maxims make it clearly appear that our Salvation is no other but a work of Mercy and Grace that what we do by the Grace of God is no less his work then what he dos alone by his absolute power and lastly that what we give to him appertains no less to him that what he gives to us To which we must add that what we call Satisfaction following the Example of the primitive Church is after all nothing but the application of the infinite satisfaction of JESVS CHRIST This very consideration ought to appease those who are offended when we tell them that God is so well pleased with fraternal charity and the communion of Saints that he frequently also accepts of those Satisfactions which we offer up one for another It seems these men do not conceive how much all we are belongs to God nor how all the favours which his Goodness makes him have for the faithful the members of JESVS CHRIST are necessarily referred to this divine head But certainly those who have read and considered how God himself inspires his servants with a desire to afflict themselves with fasting hair-cloth and ashes not only for their own sins but also for the sins of all the people will not be astonished if we say that being touched with the delight he has to gratify his friends he mercifully accepts of the humble sacrifice of their voluntary mortifications in abatement of those chastisements which he prepared for his people which shows that being satisfied by these he renders himself more mild towards the others by this means honouring his Son JESVS CHRIST in the communion of his members and in the holy society of his mystical body SECT IX The Sacraments THE Order of Doctrine requires that we now speak of the Sacraments by which the merits of JESVS CHRIST are applyed to us Seeing the disputes we have concerning them if we except the Eucharist are not so hot as the others we will in the first place clear in short the cheifest difficuties which are raised concerning the other and reserve the Eucharist which is the most important of all the rest till the last The Sacraments of the new Covenant are not sacred signs only which represent Grace nor seals which confirm it to us but the Instruments of the Holy Ghost which serve to apply it to us and which confer it upon us by vertue of the words which are pronounced and the exteriour action which is performed upon condition that we put not not any Impediment by our not being rightly disposed Whilst God annexes so great Grace to exteriour signs which have not of their own nature any proportion with so admirable an effect he shows us clearly that besides all we can do interiourly of our solves by our good dispositions there must necessarily intervene before we can be justified a special operation of the Holy Ghost and a peculiar application of the merit of our Saviour which is exhibited to us by the Sacraments So that this Doctrine cannot be rejected without injuring the merits of JESVS CHRIST and the operation of his divine power in our regeneration We acknowledg seven sacred signs or Ceremonies established by JESVS CHRIST as the ordinary means for the Sanctification and perfection of the new man Their divine institution appears in the holy Scripture either by the express words of JESVS CHRIST who established them or by the Grace which according to the same Scripture is annexed to them and necessarily shows a divine institution Baptism Seeing little Children cannot supply the want of Baptism by acts of Faith Hope and Charity nor by the vow to receive this Sacrament we believe that if they do not really receive it they do not in any manner partake of the Grace of redemption and therefore dying in Adam they have not any part in JESVS CHRIST It is good to observe here that the Lutherans believe with the Catholic Church the absolute necessity of Baptism and are astonished with her that such a truth should be denied which never any one before Calvin durst openly call in question it was so firmly rooted in the minds of all the faithful Nevertheless the Pretended Reform'd are not apprehensive voluntarily to let their Children dye like the Children of Infidels without bearing any mark of Christianity and without receiving any grace if their deaths should chance to prevent the day of their assembly Confirmation The Imposition of hands practised by the Holy Apostles to confirm the Faithful against Persecutions having its principal effect in the interiour descent of the Holy Ghost Act. 8.15.17 and the infusion of his gifts it ought not to have been rejected by our adversaries under pretence that the Holy Ghost descends now no more visibly upon us Thus all Christian Churches since the Apostles times have religiously retained it making use also of Holy Chrism to shew the vertue of this Sacrament by a more express representation of the interiour unction of the Holy Ghost Penance and Sacramental Confession We believe that JESVS CHRIST has been pleased those who have submitted themselves to the Authority of the Church by Baptism and who have since violated the laws of the Gospel should come and submit themselves to the Judgment of the same Church in the Tribunal of Penance Math. 18.18 John 20.23 where she exercises the power which is given her of remitting and retaining sins The terms of that commission which is given to the Ministers of the Church to absolve from sin are so general they cannot without temerity be restrained to publick sins and seeing when they pronounce that absolution in the name of JESVS CHRIST they only follow the express terms of this Commission the sentence is looked upon as rendred by JESVS CHRIST himself by whom they are established Judges It is this invisible High Priest who interiourly absolves the Penitent whilst the Priest exteriourly exercises the function This Penitential Court of Judicature being so necessary a curb to liberty a source so fruitful of wise admonitions so sensible a consolation for souls afflicted for their Sins when their absolution is not only declared in general terms as it is practised by the Ministers but when they are in reality absolved by the authority of JESVS CHRIST after a particular examination and knowledg of the Case we cannot believe that our adversaries can look upon so many benefits without regretting their loss and without being somewhat ashamed of a Reformation which has cast off so saving and so holy a practise Extream Vnction The Holy Ghost having according to the testimony of St. James
flock in his paths which those who love Concord amongst Brethren and Ecclesiastical Unanimity will most willingly acknowledg And certainly if the Authors of the Pretended Reformation had loved Unity they would neither have abolished Episcopal Government which was established by JESVS CHRIST himself and which we find in force even in the times of the Apostles nor have despised the Authority of St. Peter's Chair which has so solid a Foundation in the Gospel and so evident a succession in Tradition but they would rather have carefully conserved Episcopal Authority which establisheth unity in particular Churches and the Primacy of St. Peter's Chair which is the common Center of all Catholic Unity SECT XXII Conclusion of this Treatise THIS is the Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine in which that I might tye my self to the most principal I have left some questions untouched which those of the Pretended Reform'd Religion do not look upon as lawful matter for a Separation I hope those of their Communion who shall impartially examin all the Parts of this Treatise will be better disposed by the reading of it to give ear to those proofs upon which the Faith of the Church is established and will in the mean time acknowledg many of our Controversies may be ended by a sincere explication of our Tenets that her Doctrine is Holy and that according to their own Principles no one of her Articles destroys the grounds of Salvation If any one should think fit to answer this Treatise he is desired to consider that to accomplish his intent he must not undertake to refute the Doctrine contained in it seeing my Design was only to propose it without going about to prove it and that if in some Places I have hinted at some of the reasons which establish it it is because the knowledg of the principal reasons of a Doctrine is often a necessary part of it's Explication It would also be a quitting of the design of this Treatise to examin the different methods which Catholic Divines make use of to establish or explicate the Doctrine of the Council of Trent and the different Consequences which particular Doctors have drawn from it To urge any thing solid against this Treatise and which may come home to the point it must be proved that the Churches Faith is not here faithfully expounded and that by Acts which the same Church has obliged herself to receive or else it must be shown that this Explication leaves all the Objections in their full force and all the Disputes untouched or in fine it must be precisely shown in what this Doctrine subverts the Foundations of Faith Lettre de Monseigneur le Cardinal BONA a Monseigneur le Card. de BUILLON HO ricevnto il libro di Monsignor Vescovo di Condom che V. E. si è degnata inviarmi e sì come Conosco la qualità del favore emâ—ne pregio cosi rendo alla sua gentilezza infinite gratie e per il dono e per il pensiero che si pronde di acorescere la mia Libraria L'hò letto con attentione particolare e perche V E. mi accenna che alcuni lo accusano di qualche mancamento hò voluto particolarmente osservare in che potesse esser ripreso Mà realmente non sò trovarci se non materia di grandissima lode perche senza entrare nelle questioni spinose delle controversie conuna maniera ingegnosa facile e famigliare e con metodo per così dire geometrica da certi principii communi approvati convince i Calvenisti e li necessita à consessare la verità della Fede Cattolica Assicuro V. E. di haverlo letto con mia indicibile sodisfattione nè mi maraviglio chegli habbino trovato à dire perche tutte le Opere grandi e che sormontano l'ordinario sempre hanno contradittori Vince però finalmente la verità e da'frutti si conosce la qualità dell'albero Me ne rallegre con l' Autore il quale hà dato saggio del suo gran talento con questa a opera e potrà con molte altre servire lodevolmente à Santa Chiesa Roma 19. Gennaro 1672. Lettre de Monseigneur le Cardinal SIGISMOND CHIG la Monsieur L'Abbé de DANGEAU RICEVEI con la sua lettera ill Libro della Espositione della Dottrina Cattolica del Vescovo di Condom molto erudito e molto utile per convertire gl heretici più con le vive ragioni che con l'asprezza del discorso Parlai al Padre Mastro di S. Palazzo al Segretario dell ' Congregatione dell Indice e conobbi veramente che non viera stato chi havesse a questi Padri parlato in disfavore del medesimo Anzi li trovai pieni di estimatione per il medesimo havendo poi parlato con questi Signori Cardinali della Congregatione trovai frà gl'altri il Signor Cardinale Brancaccio molto inclinato a pregiarlo e molto propenso a lodarne l'Autore Onde io tengo certo che qua ancora Monsignor di Condom ottenga quella lode che e dovuta alla sua fatica alla sua dottrina Resto per tanto obligato alla sua gentilezza che mi ha dato modo di ammirar la medesima mentre mi pare che l'Autore string a bene i suoi argomenti e mostri chiaro i punti nei quali i divisi discordano della Chieza ne credo che il modo che tien l'Autore sia da condannarsi nell'esplicatione di qualche Dottrina insegnata dal Concilio di Trento essendo praticato da molti Scrittori essendo da lui maneggiato molto regolatamente in oltre che l'Autore non ha havuto in mente d'inte pretare i dogmi di quel Concilio ma solo importarlinel suo libro esplicati perche gl'heretici restino convinti in chiaro di tutto quello che la Santa Chiesa gl'obliga di credere Dell'autorita del Papa ne parlabene e con il dovnto rispetto della Sede Romana ogni volià che parla del capo visibile della Chiesa onde torno à dire che non e capace che di lode Roma 5. Aprile 1672. Lettre du Reverendiss Pere HYACINTHE LIBELLI alors Maistre du Sacre Palais maintenant Archevesque d'Avignon a Monseigneur le Cardinal SIGISMOND CHIGI HO letto il Libro del Sig. di Condom continente l'Espositione dellae Dottrina della Chiesa Devo infinite gratie à V. E. che mi habbia fatte consumare quattro hore di tempo sì virtuo samente e con tanto mio diletro Mi è piacciuto sopra modo e per l'Argomento singolare e per le prove che à quello correspondono La Dottrina è tutta sana ne v'ha embra di mancamento No per me sò quello che possa opporvisi e se l'Autore desidererà che si ristamp in Roma da me otterrÃ