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
give us Aversion for the Doctrine of Reality whose Attendants should be so strange and would tend to establish a New Sacrifice that is to say a New Religion But we cannot agree that the Sacrifice of the Mass be an Attendant of the Real Presence It may be an Issue if Men please because it followed after it and that they have made a Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Eucharist only after they had imagined a Real Presence of the Flesh of Jesus Christ But it is an Issue which hath no foundation but in Illusion for in truth it is clear That the Flesh of Jesus Christ in whatever manner it be given us is only given us but to be Eaten and not to be Sacrificed seeing the Lord commands us to Eat his Flesh and never ordains it to be Sacrificed If the Real Presence did necessarily induce the Sacrifice it were because Men should Sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ wherever he is Were it so he were then to be Sacrificed in Heaven So in this place no more then about Adoration we cannot grant that the Catholick Romans do Reason more Consequentially than the Lutherans because these which hold the Real Presence do not yet make a Sacrifice of the Eucharist Yet once more I have no design either to prove nor refute and I will hold me religiously within the Bounds which I have mark'd out for my self Therefore I will not examine all that Monsieur de Condom saith to expound the Epistle to the Hebrews It is one of his digressions done for swelling his Work He shall say whatever he pleases but he shall never make them believe who shall preserve but a little liberty of the Spirit that this Epistle be favourable to the Sacrifice of the Mass Never will Men comprehend the reason of the Silence of the Apostle upon this matter in a place where he treated to the bottom both of the Sacrifice and of the Christian Priesthood This were a manifest prevarication and if having wherewith to satisfie the Jews who would have by all means Visible Sacrifices he had not put into their hands the Sacrifice of the Mass to impose Silence on them Monsieur de Condom would believe he had done much if he could but draw this Epistle from laying so heavy upon his Party and had proved that it doth nothing against him Also hath he no other end in his Reflexion it is not a thing to be dispatch'd in Eight or Ten little Pages but though he had done it he had yet done nothing to purpose It is not enough to have proved that this Epistle contains not Proofs against the Sacrifice of the Mass They should find therein Proofs for this Sacrifice for it is there that they ought to be if there were any in the Scripture and if they find none in that place it is a prejudgment that they cannot be found in any part ARTICLE XIII Of the Retranchment of the Cup. BEhold the last of the Consequences of Transubstantiation and of the Real Presence it is the Retranchment of the Cup and Communion under one kind Monsieur de Condom finds in his Theology that it is so natural a Consequence thereof and so necessary that those who confess or tolerate Real Presence should find it no trouble to Communicate under one kind If it were true that the Retranchment of the Cup were a necessary Attendant of the Real Presence it were to us a new Reason against the receiving thereof but it concerns me little whether that Consequence be good or bad It is a Controversie which I leave to the Bohemians to dispatch and to the Germans French Bavarians and to so many others who did in the last Age demand with so much instance the Restitution of the Communion under both kinds and who notwithstanding believed Transubstantiation and the Real Presence I will say only Two things thereupon The first That the Church which during a Thousand years entire by the Confession of these Doctours Administred the Communion under both kinds did not believe the Retranchment of the Cup were a needful Attendant of the Real Presence seeing that if we believe them that same Church believed also that Real Presence I grant that it is an astonishing thing That during the Ten first Ages Men should not have that Scruple which they have had in the following In those Times when Men accounted it a greater honour to wear on their Face the mark of their Sex than they do this day I know not how then Men should not abhor to see after the Communion a thousand Bodies of Christ Jesus hanging at the Beard of a Mariner They have not thought of a Remedy to be sought for that Scandal but since Berengarius and since the establishing of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation One had need be very dull methink and thick Skulled not to be sensible that these new Precautions which they since that began to be thought of are an evident Proof that there hath been Innovation in the Doctrine The other thing I would say is That I found a Word in the Book of Monsieur de Condom which makes me suspect that himself is but ill perswaded that the Communion under one Kind is an Attendant of the Real Presence In the Consecration saith he the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are mystically separated because that Jesus Christ said separately This is my Body This is my Blood which doth include a lively and efficacious representation of the violent Death which he suffered If the Body and Blood be mystically separated in Consecration why should they not be so in the Communion If Jesus hath said separately This is my Body This is my Blood hath not he also said separately Eat Drink He that eats my Flesh and He that drinks my Blood In fine If the Signs be separated in this Sacrifice to induce a lively and efficacious representation of the violent Death of Jesus Christ why do they not also give them Separately at the Communion seeing they make there the Commemoration of that Violent Death and that Men participate there of the whole efficacy of that Death If Monsieur de Condom would thus Reason upon the Principles which he himself hath laid he should then Reason as Cajetan and many other Able Men have done who did believe Transubstantiation and the Real Presence All that may serve to make it appear that the Lutherans do not Reason so ill as Men would perswade us when they sever the Doctrine of the Real Presence from all those Attendants which they give it in the Roman Church But that is not my principal Affair Here it is It is to make known that Monsieur de Condom hath no reason for desiring to perswade us that this Retranchment of the Cup is nothing important and that it should not hinder us from Reunion to the Roman Church The Christian Religion according to us hath but Two Sacraments and should it be nothing important to us to see ravished from us the Moiety of
above her Son that they give her all the glory of our Salvation It 's Father Cresset himself that teaches us that And when should we have done if we would cite all that Father Mainbourg in his History of the Icenoclastae and what so many others have said lately to establish that Worship of the Virgins and of the Saints For in fine Let any one visit the Presses and Libraries of St. Jame's Street or go to Michallet or all the others let him see if ever more Books were printed fit to nourish People in the Worship of Saints and entertain them in those Excesses that Men fain to condemn It 's there that Men shall find the Slavery of the Admirable Mother of God the Worship and Veneration which is due to the Nine Orders of the Celestial Hierarchy the Life of St. Josse and that of St. Peter the Chaplet or perpetual Adoration of the most Holy Sacrament l'Abbriegé del Indulgences the Statutes of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives the Mysteries of the Virgin the Panegyricks of St. Rose by the Father Oliva General of the Jesuites All these Books and a thousand others are newly printed and there we find a Theology and Devotions which should cause a true Grief to them that are truly jealous of the Glory of God and of his Honour Nothing is more capable to make us see in what Spirit Men serve and invoke the Saints than the Sacrifice of the Mass which they celebrate to their Honour My Lord of Condom makes an Article thereof and turns the thing to the fairest side let him not take it ill if we examine it in its Native state That they may not accuse us of Calumniating I will represent here the very Words of the Council of Trent If any one maintain that it 's an abuse to celebrate Masses to the honour of Saints and to obtain their Intercession with God as the Church understands let him be Anathema Here is happily the strangest thing in the World and which hath not been well considered of to this day They offer a Sacrifice to the honour of a Creature It 's true that the Council of Trent saith formally that they offer not Sacrifices to Saints But these Gentlemen will permit us to observe that in every Tongue to do Service to some Person or to do it in honour of that Person signifie the same thing We say The Pagans have built Temples to their False gods and to the honour of their False gods They have established Feasts to the honour of Demons and to Demons they have made Sacrifices to Idols and to the honour of Idols We believe then that we say by the second Expression the same thing as by the first Men do not speak otherwise in the World They say Men have erected a Statue to the Prince or to the honour of the Prince they have put up this Triumphers Ark to the King or to the honour of the King Those Gentlemen must make us Vocabularies quite new and advertize us that they are not pleased to speak like all Mankind Let 's a little unravel this confused Idea They may offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to the honour of a Saint by the hand of a Priest That is to say They may offer a God to our God to the honour of a Creature by the hands of another Creature The Victim is God the Son he to whom they offer him is God the Father he to whose honour he is offered it 's a Saint a Creature and he that offers is a Priest that is to say another Creature If that be not called to go against the Order observed in all the Religions of the World I know not how it may be called In every Religion Men observe in all their Sacrifices a certain gradation of Dignity among these Three things The Minister of the Sacrifice the Oblation and he to whose Honour the Oblation is offered The Oblation is always the least excellent for before time they were only Animals He that offered was much more excellent because it was a Man But lastly He to whose honour the Sacrifice was offered was infinitely greater than the Priest seeing they considered him as God And even this Order is found in this admirable Sacrifice of the Cross which seems to be gone beyond all Rules The Human Nature which is the Victim is in the lowest degree of Dignity The Lord Jesus Christ as God and Man together is the Sacrificer and under that regard he is more than the Victim In fine He in whose honour this Sacrifice is offered it is God who is superiour both to the Victim and to the Sacrificer For although the Lord Jesus Christ be equal in all things to his Father by his Divinity yet considered as God and Man he is Inferiour and it s in this regard that he saith The Father is greater than I. But in the Sacrifice which they celebrate to the honour of Saints this Order is turn'd upside down The Victim is infinitely more excellent than he to whose Honour it is offered for they offer the Body of Jesus Christ to the honour of Saints Behold a thing which may yet seem more incomprehensible The Council of Trent saith That Jesus Christ who offered himself on the Cross is the same who offers himself this day by the Ministry of the Priests that is to say that Jesus Christ offers himself he is then properly the Sacrificer His Sacrifice is celebrated to the honour of the Saints thence it follows that Jesus Christ offers himself to his Father to the honour of the Saints To offer to the honour of the Saints it is to honour and to serve them So Jesus Christ who is the Master and the Creator serves and honours the Saints which are the Creatures in Sacrificing himself to their honour Methinks this Consequence comes not far yet it appears to me terrible Here is another that is but little less In all Sacrifices the Sacrificer is the Suppliant and he that demands favours He to whose honour men offer is the Person of whom these favours are demanded and the Victim is the Means by which the Suppliant inclines him of whom he demands Here the end is to implore the Protection of the Saints and to obtain their Intercession with God They are the very words of the Council He that labours to obtain this Grace is the Sacrificer and this Sacrificer is Jesus Christ the Victim by means whereof he essays to obtain this Grace it is his Body and Blood Gather all these things together and say The Son of God God himself blessed for ever offers to God the Sacrifice of his Body and of his Blood to obtain from a Saint his Protection and his Intercession for the Faithful According to that is it not true that Jesus Christ renders himself Mediator and Intercessour with the Saints sor to obtain of those Saints the Grace of their Intercession for
the Truth Mean while we declare that Real Presence precisely in it self and without its Attendants is the least of our Controversies about the Eucharist that Adoration Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the Retranchment of the Cup and Masses without Communicants seem to us much more important That those Attendants are not according to us Natural Attendants of the Real Presence precisely in it self they are false and evil Consequences which Men have drawn out of it For it is but a bad Reasoning in our Judgment to say The Body of Jesus Christ is Spiritually and Invisibly under the Accidents of Bread and Wine therefore it must be Sacrificed therefore it must be adored and we must retrench the Cup from the People That is it which we shall particularly demonstrate But before that I shall give a Third Advice upon what Monsieur of Condom saith about the importance of the Controversie of the Real Presence It is that granting it to be important he dissembles all the Importance thereof There is nothing saith he that appears more important in our Controversies seeing the question is of the Presence of Jesus Christ himself The Question is not only of that but 1. The Question is Whether we shall oppose all the Lights of our Senses which say that the Signs of the Eucharist are Bread and Wine and if we shall believe that God doth continually offer Illusion to our Senses which is opposite to his Verity and to his Purity 2. The Question is Whether we must suppose that God doth every Moment and without necessity violate the Laws of Nature that are most inviolable which is opposite to his Wisdom 3. The Question is Whether we shall receive a Theology whereof the Consequences destroy all Christian Religion a Theology which confounds Body and Soul and takes away the Bounds that distinguish them A Doctrine which supposing the Flesh of Christ becomes Spiritual Invisible subsisting under a Point confounds the Body with the Soul For I know not how else we can define the Properties of the Soul but in saying She is Invisible without Extension without Space and concluded under a Point This Doctrine also confounds Human Nature with the Divine for it gives to the Flesh of Jesus Christ that which belongs only to his Divinity that is to be in many Places at once and be able to fill Heaven and Earth It destroys the Article of Ascension and robs the Church of that Proof which she made use of against those Hereticks who denied the Truth of the Human Nature of Jesus Christ sor they opposed them by a Proof drawn from thence That during the Life of the Lord Men had always seen in him all the Actions the Motions and Properties of Man This Reasoning will be nothing worth if a Body can be without its Properties and if the Properties of a Body can be without a Body 4. The Question is Whether Men may settle such a manner of Interpreting Scripture which will overthrow all Scripture and will give place to all Heresies if by one passage alone one must explain an hundred others which seem to say the contrary or if by the hundred one should explain that which is alone For for one only passage that saith That that which we see in the Eucharist is the Body of Jesus Christ there are seven or eight others which say formally That it is Bread and Wine The Bread that we break Whosoever shall eat this Bread Whensoever you eat of this Bread Let every one eat of this Bread 5. The Question is to know Whether we will belie our Lord Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Ghost who tells us That we shall not have him always with us that he was going to Heaven that the Heaven must hold him till the restoration of all things 6. The Question is to know Whether to avoid a Natural Figure in these Words This is my Body we shall expose Christian Religion to the scandal of Infidels yea to the greatest Scandal that can be imagined For in fine whilst they shall be able to reproach us That we eat our own God it is certain they will never come to us 7. The Question is Whether we should ruine one of the Sacraments of the Church in destroying the Bread in nullifying the Sign and substituting in its place the Thing signified 8. The Question is to know Whether we should draw down the Lord of Glory from the Throne of his Majesty to nullifie him a second time but with an Annihilation greater than that which he descended into after his Incarnation The Question is to know If this be to respect Jesus Christ our Lord sufficiently to call him down back by the help of three Words ill explained to place him in Impure places to expose him to be trod under feet to be eaten by the Profane to be mingled with Poyson and with Death and to a thousand other Dangers that one dares not express 9. The Question is to know finally If for a Corporal Communion without which one may be saved and wherewith one may be damned and which consequently is not necessary to Salvation we must overthrow all the Rules of Reason of good Sense of Grace and of Nature I know not if after all this any one shall be able to say again Reality and Transubstantiation are not an Affair that should retain you nor hinder you from re-entring into the Roman Church Monsieur of Condom saith thereupon Two things which are to the purpose and which are to be examined The first is That we have shortned our selves those great Spaces of Separation They have approached nearer to us saith he it is because we admit a Presence real It is because our Catechism saith That Jesus Christ makes us partakers of his proper substance and our Confession of Faith That he nourishes us with the Substance of his Body and Blood It is because we say That although Jesus Christ be truly communicated to to us by Baptism and by the Gospel nevertheless it is but in part and not fully Thereupon my Lord of Condom Reasons after his manner and as seems him good Behold then saith he the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present in our Mysteries by the Grant of Calvinists Behold Jesus Christ received in his proper Substance Jesus Christ is given us in the Eucharist in a manner which suits neither Baptism nor the Gospel and which is wholly proper to this Mystery It follows then that this Participation is not fixed to the Faith seeing that Faith being diffused generally through all the Actions of a Christian is found in the Preaching and in Baptism First I would fain know what Service all this doth to the principal purpose of Monsieur de Condom which is to reapproach us to himself Are we nearer thereto because of some resemblance in the Terms Though we had ill explained our Doctrine and by Incommodious Terms have we then changed it at the bottom And doth not he
Theirs and to make Profession of the Real Presence We have offered only to them in remaining still separate from them as We are both by Assemblies and by some Ceremonies external little important to tolerate them to regard them as our Brethren to receive them when they will come to us without obliging them to an express abjuration of the Doctrines that separate us Behold what we have offered And it is demanded of us That abandoning our Assemblies our Ceremonies and our Doctrines and particularly that of the Real Presence we should re-unite that is to say that we re-enter without any more ado into the Roman Church to believe the Real Presence or at least to make Profession of believing it There is so great difference between tolerating an Errour and to make Profession of believing that Errour that the former may be an action of Charity and the second cannot be but an abominable Hypocrisie The one serves towards Salvation and by the other we evidently hazard our Salvation I can say with assurance that if we should re-enter into the Lutheran Church and that we should bring back our People to them to make their Profession of the Real Presence we should commit a Crime that God would never pardon us After that they would have Ministers to lead back their People into the Roman Church without Mystery to make their Profession of the Real Presence which is a thousand times more dangerous than what we tolerate in the Lutherans 2. We may further tolerate the Real Presence of the Lutherans without tolerating that of the Roman Church because there is a very great difference between the one and the other But before we pass further it is good to remark that what those Doctours say is not true That we regard that Real Presence of the Lutherans as a light Errour It is a great Evil and to cure our Brethren of it we would willingly have given half our own Blood And what we have offered to tolerate them it was principally in hope to bring them back by little and little from their wandring If then we say that their is no Venom in that Opinion we understand it of mortal Venom and a killing One. It is enough to confess some Venom in an Opinion to acknowledge therein some Absurdities which dishonour Reason and blast Christian Religion and we acknowledge it too much in the Real Presence of the Lutherans But it is true that we believe not that it destroys any foundation of Faith We regard it principally in that manner wherein it is expressed in their Confession which saith Touching the Lords Supper they teach that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are truly present and are distributed to them who eat at the Lords Supper and condemn those who say the contrary There is nothing in these general Words that we might not subscribe to As for the manner of this Presence they are reserved and define it not They say Jesus Christ is there but we know not how If there be any which do pass rashly further in setling what they call Ubiquity that is to say the Presence of Christ's Humanity in all places of the World that passes not among them for a Fundamental Point The Real Presence of the Lutherans doth not destroy the Bread for they confess that the Signs are of true Bread and true Wine and according to that they do not suppose that God offers perpetually an Illusion to our Senses to make us see and feel a Body where there is not a Body They do not destroy the Sacrament seeing they leave the Signs entire The Real Presence of the Lutherans hath not for Attendants the Adoration of the Eucharist and obliges not Men to adore a Creature It doth not induce a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Among the Lutherans they have not retranched the Cup from the People In fine It is not accompanied with an infinite Number of Worships of Ceremonies and of Doctrines which be incompatible with the purity of the Faith In that Church they do not Worship Images they do not Invoke Saints they do not prostrate themselves before Relicks they serve God in a Known Tongue they acknowledge no Mediator but Jesus Christ no other Satisfaction but his Merit any other Indulgence but his Grace any other Soveraign Authority but his own and that of his Word In a word Let the Roman Church set her Real Presence in the same state as is that of the Lutherans and we will offer to them the same thing which we offer to these so they will not ask us any more that is to say that we will offer them a Toleration so that she will not demand us to re-enter into her Communion For yet once more We never offered to conjoyn with the Lutheran Church whilst they abide in the state wherein they are and we will never do it for any thing in the World 3. I must yet Advertize once more these Gentlemen that for to know the poyson of an Errour one must principally regard it in that which is diffused on practice both of the Worship and of Morality Then for to know how dangerous the Real Presence is we must not regard it in her self but in the Attendants given it that is Adoration the Sacrifice and the Retranchment of the Cup. There it is that the danger lies and that is it that the Lutherans have not No subtilty of the Ministers saith Monsieur de Condom shall ever be able to perswade Men of good Sense that bearing with the Reality which is the most important Point and the more difficult they ought not also to tolerate the rest How can the Ingenuity and Light of Monsieur of Condom permit him to say that What if they tolerate a Speculative Opinion which changes nothing in the Worship and in the Religion shall we be obliged to tolerate the Adoration of a Creature which is of all things most opposite to the Foundations of Faith If a Man be perswaded that God is in the Sun by a presence of Substance greater than that wherewith he is in the rest of the World it would be an absurd Opinion But I know not whether there be any Person that would damn a Man for that alone but if that Man would conclude from that Errour that Men ought to worship the Sun and should himself so worship it what Sentiment should we have of him As for me I would tolerate his Errour as a Visionary Thought but I would abhor him as an Idolater because of his Conclusion If then to perswade Men it may be sufficient to express things with a great Assurance I say there will never be any subtilty or disguise that may perswade Men of good Sense that Toleration for a Real Presence should induce to a Toleration for the Attendants which the Roman Church gives it They say to that That they are not Attendants given thereto but that they are Natural Attendants and that even the
brought them out of Egypt If it be the Intention of Jesus Christ that there shall be in his Church a perpetual Sacrifice of his Body and of his Blood we must not flatter our selves we follow not the Religion of Jesus Christ But if that continual Sacrifice hath not been instituted by the Lord assuredly they make a new Christianism and a new Religion The Question then is to know if without any other Mystery we should pass into a Religion which is Essentially different from ours 2. But it is not only the Question to know If Men should introduce into the Church a new Sacrifice but if Men should Sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God It is the greatest Oblation the Noblest and most important in the World And that deserves well methinks to have Reflexion made thereon before we engage to Re-union whereto they invite us If any rash Person would sprinkle with the Blood of Oxen and Sheep their Altars according to the Usage of all People and of the Ancient Church there would not be Thunders enough to crush to death such an Undertaker If such an Impious Man should form a Society wherein they might practice such Sacrifices they would arm all the Powers of Christianism to abolish such a Religion Yet would that agitation be but about the Sacrifices of some Beasts The business is to Sacrifice the God of Heaven the Master of the World and they will perswade us that it is a business of Nothing 3. The Question again is to know Whether they should put into the hands of a Man the GOD of the Universe as an Oblation in the hands of a Sacrificer that is if we should debase the Creatour into the hands of a Creature It is a Truth which good Sense dictates among all Nations and all Ages that the Sacrificer is greater than the Oblation Without contradiction the lesser is blessed of the greater It is the Principle of St. Paul the Priest blesses the Oblation They put the Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of a Priest as an Oblation they then lift up the Priest above Jesus Christ We cannot but have regard to that as to a very good Affair 4. We cannot also keep our selves from seeing that this Doctrine doth annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by good and legitimate Consequences If the Lord Jesus Christ was to have Successors in his Off ce of Priest he is not then himself an Eternal Priest Either St. Paul's Reasoning is bad or my Proof is invincible For in fine I Reason like him He said If Perfection had been in the Levitical Priesthood was it needful that another Priest should arise after the Order of Melchisedeck and who should not be called after the Order of Aaron The Priesthood being changed there must of need be a change of the Law I say the same If Perfection was found in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Priest of Melchisedecks Order why should Men introduce new Priests which much more like to be after the Order of Aaron than after the Order of Melchisedeck And if the setling of a new Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck hath overthrown the Levitical Priesthood doth not the Priesthood of these Sacrifices annihilate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ This is your Errour say they you suppose that this is a new Priesthood and it is not so for it is the same it is the Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck which is Eternal because it abides still in the Church and without that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ would not be Eternal after the way of that of Melchisedeck Why would Men oblige us to believe things that are incredible to justifie the Church of Rome They tell us That the Priesthood of their Priests is the same as that of Jesus Christ I know not whether Heaven and Earth are more distant and if Light and Darkness be more different Jesus Christ is God those Priests are Men. Jesus Christ abides for ever those Priests die No Man succeeds Jesus Christ Priests succeed one the other Jesus Christ offered not for himself the Priests offer for their own Sins as for those of the People Jesus Christ is Holy separate from Sinners Priests are often engaged into great Disorders Jesus Christ hath offered once one sole Sacrifice these offer every day and reiterate their Sacrifice Jesus Christ finishes his Sacrifice in the Holy Places not made with hands Priests make their Sacrifices upon Altars of Stone and in Temples made by Mans hand In fine Melchisedeck was a singular Man and only it must needs be therefore that he who was to sustain that Priesthood whereof his was the Figure should be a singular and only Person but the Priests are in great Numbers After that can Men deny that Priests are Sacrificers much rather like the Order of Aaron than that of Melchisedeck And if it be so we say it once more The Establishment of their Priesthood destroys that of Christ by good Consequence Though that should be granted say they it is a disavowed Consequence and which by consequence should not prove an obstacle to the Re-union To that I say Though Men disavow it yet we see it and fear it still because it produces actually its effect It is not in Points of Practise as in those of Speculation In these it is true so the Consequence be disavowed it must not be imputed although it do arise from the Speculative Principles of those that disavow it But when a Practise or Worship destroy by consequence an important Truth that is in vain to disavow the Consequence while People remain in the Worship and in that Practise they are actually guilty of having done prejudice against such a Truth For Example A Pagan doth joyn to the Adoration of God the Sovereign many Inferiour Deities We tell him That by this Worship he offers a great Wrong to the Soveraign God He may Answer That it is a Consequence which he disavows and that his Intention is to render an infinite Honour to this Soveraign God Because he disavows the Consequence is he justified 5. Finally We cannot keep our selves from seeing That the Sacrifice of the Mass doth a great dishonour to the Sacrifice of the Cross for if it be needful to reiterate every day that Sacrifice the first Oblation which was made thereof must have been insufficient We Reason as the Apostle that saith The Sacrifices that are offered every year cannot sanctifie them that have recourse to them otherwise they had ceased them from offering them since the Offerers being once sanctified should have had no more Conscience of Sin We Reason as these Doctors themselves We shall hear one of them presently saying to us If the Mass were infinite it were in vain to offer many Masses Let 's be permitted to say also If the value of the Sacrifice of the Cross were infinite it is in vain to offer so many others It is here that