of the part they had in that oblation so CHRIST IESVS hauing made himself our Offering did intend we should really eate the flesh of this Sacrifice to the end this actual communication of that adorable flesh should remayne a perpetual testimony to euery one of vs in particular that it was for our sakes he assumed and for vs he sacrificed his mortal flesh and blood God had forbiden the Iews to eate of the Sacrifice which was à Sin-Offering with intent to teach them that true expiation of crimes was not obteyned in the Law nor by the blood of beasts All the poeple stood as it were interdicted by this restraint not being capable to partake actually of the remission of sinns Now for the quite contrary reason it was requisit that the Body of our Sauiour the true Host offer'd vp for sin should be eaten by the faithful in order to the teaching them by this true eating that the forgiuenes of sinns was accomplished in the New Testament God did likewise forbid the people of the Iews the eating of blood and one of the reasons of this restraynt was that the blood is giuen for the expiation of our soules Quite contrary our Sauiour proposeth the drinking of his Blood because it is shed for the remission of sinns So that the eating of the Flesh drinking the Blood of the Sonne of God at the holy table is as Reall as Grace the expiation of sinns and the participation of the Sacrifice of CHRIST IESVS is actual and effectiue in the New Alliance Notwithstanding which truth by reason he intended to exercise our Faith in this Mystery and at the same time to deliuer vs from the horror of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in their own kinds it was fit and convenient to exhibite them unto us couered under an other species But if these considerations did oblige him to ordaine our eating the Flesh of our Offring in a different manner from that of the Iews yet he ought not in that respect to depriue vs of the Reality and the Substance of it It is apparent therefore that to accomplish the figures of the old Law and to putt vs in actual possession of that Victime offred for our sinns CHRIST IESVS did designe the giving vs Realy truly his Body and Blood which point is so euident that our Aduersaries themselues desire we should be perswaded they haue the same beleefe as we professe since they doe continually presse vrge to vs their not denying the true and Real participation of the Body and Blood of CHRIST in the Eucharist which pretence of theirs we will examine in the sequent discourse where we conceave it will be proper to expose their sentiments after hauing fully explicated the beleefe of the Church In the meane tyme we may conclude that if the faire and natural signification of the words vsed by the sonne of God compelleth them to graunt that his expresse intention was to giue Really his Flesh when he said This is my body they ought not to wonder that we can not consent to the vnderstanding these words as spoken meerly in a figuratiue sense And surely the sonne of God who was so carefull to explaine to his Apostles what he taught vnder the vailes of parables and figures hauing said nothing in this point to explaine himself further seemes cleerly to haue left these words in their natural signification I know that our Aduersaries pretend that the matter it self explains sufficiently the meaning because say they it is cleer that what he exposeth is but Bread and Wyne but the cloude of this argument vanisheth when we reflect that he who speaketh is of an Authority which ought to ouerrule our senses hath an Omnipotēce transcending all nature It is no harder for the sonne of God to effect his body's presence in the Eucharist saying This is my body then to cure a woman of her infirmity by saying Woman thou art freed from thy infirmity or to preserue the Centurion's sonne by saying Thy sonne liueth or in fine to effect the forgiuenes of the sinns of the bed-rid paralytique by uttering only Thy sinns are forgiuen thee We hauing therefore no reason to trouble our selues how CHRIST will effect what he saith we fix our beleefe precisely on his words He who makes whatsoeuer he willeth by his words effecteth whatsoeuer he saith and it was much easier for the sonne of God to force the laws of nature to verify his word then it is for vs to conforme our vnderstandings vnto such violent strayn'd interpretations as destroy all the laws of discourse The laws of language and discourse tell vs that the signe which naturally representeth doth very often take the name of the thing it self because it is natural to it to recall the idea or image of it into the mind The same hapens to signes by institution but then it is vpon condition that they be receiued and acknowledged for signes and that the parties be accustomed to them But that in instituting a signe which of it self hath no rapport to the thing as for example a peece of bread to signify the body of a man one should giue it that name without explaining of it and before agreement made concerning it as JESVS-CHRIST our Lord did in the last supper is a thing vnhear'd of and whereof we finde no example in holy scripture and I might say none in humane language Whereupon the Pretending Reformers themselues doe not so fixe vpon the figuratiue sense which they ascribe to the words of CHRIST JESVS as not to acknowledge at the same time that when he vttered those words he intended to giue vs Truly his Body and his Blood After hauing proposed the sense of the Church touching these words This is my body it is fitt to exhibite her perswasion concerning the words which CHRIST did adioyne vnto them Doe this in remembrance of me It is euident that the intention of the sonne of God was to oblige vs by these words vnto a retention and remembrance of the death he had suffered for our redemption and S. Paul concludeth out of these very words that we announce the death of our Lord in this mystery we must not then perswade our selues that this remembrance of the death of our Lord excludeth the Reall presence of his Body but quite contrary if we consider rightly what we haue here explicated we shall discerne cleerly that this Commemoration is grounded vpon the Reall presence for in the same manner as the Iews eating of the Peace-Offerings did reflect that they had bin offer'd vp for them so we eating the Flesh of CHRIST JESVS our Victime are bound to remember that he suffered death for vs. It is therefore the very same Flesh eaten by the faithfull which not only reuiueth in vs the memory of his immolation but doth besides confirme to vs that verity And we are so farr from hauing reason to say that
which comprehend the expresse Doctrine of the Councel of Trent they would forbeare to obiect to vs that we injure the Mediation of CHRIST IESVS and that we inuoke Saints adore Images in a manner peculiar to God himself It is granted by reason that in some sense Inuocation Adoration and the name of Mediator are competent only to God and CHRIST JESVS that it is easy by a perverse vse of those termes to traduce our Doctrine and render it odious but if they are ingenuously receiued in that sense we haue exhibited these obiections loose all their force and if there remayne in the minds of the Pretended Reformers any lesse important difficultyes naturall equity and syncerity will oblige them to auowe themselues satisfy'd in the principall exceptions Besides this there is nothing more vniust then to charge the Church with the stating of all piety in this devotion to Saints since as we haue already euinced the Councel of Trent iudgeth it sufficient to informe and teach Catholiques that this practise is Good Vsefull without advancing it further so that the Churches intent is to condemn such as reiect this practise either by Contempt or Misconstruction and the Church is obliged to condemn them by reason that she ought not to indure the condemning of salutary and usefull practises nor that a Doctrine which all Antiquity hath authorised should be reiected by the Nouellists Doctors The matter of iustification will manifest yet a greater light how many difficulties may be avoyded by a syncere exposition of our opinions Those who are never so little acquainted with the history of the Pretended Reformation can not be ignorant that those who were the first Authors of it did propose this Article to all the world as the principall and as it were the most essentiall ground of their separation so that this seemes the most necessary point to be rightly understood First we beleeve that our sinns are forgiuen freely by the divine mercy for JESVS-CHRIST'S sake these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent which addeth further that we are said to be iustified freely because none of those things which precede our iustification either our faith or our works can merit this grace And by reason the holy scripture explains to us the remission of our sinns expressing it some times by saying that God couers them and others that he takes them quite away and effaceth them by the grace of the holy Ghost which renders vs new creatures we conceiue that we are to combine all these expressions to forme a compleate Idea or notion of the iustification of a sinner we doe therefore beleeue that our sinns are not only couered but intirely effaced by the blood of CHRIST IESVS and by the grace by which we are regenerated and this perswasion is so farr from detracting from that image we ought to frame of the merit of that blood as quite contrary it indeareth and eleuateth the value of it for by this meanes the righteousnes of Christ is not simply imputed but actually imparted to the faithfull by the operation of the holy Ghost in so much as they are not only imputed but euen rendered righteous by the grace of Christ. If our righteousnes were only in the sight of man it would not be the operation of the holy Ghost it must then be iustice euen before God since it is God himself who produceth it in vs by an effusion of his charity vpon our harts It is notwithstanding but too true that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and we all offend in many things Wherefore albeit our righteousnes be a true one by the infusion of Charity yet is it no perfect one by reason of the combat between it our concupiscence so that the sighing and sorrowing of a soule repenting her sinns performes the most necessary duty of Christian righteousnes which obligeth vs to confesse with S. Augustin that our righteousnes in this life consists rather in the remission of our sinns then in the perfection of our virtues Wherefore as to the point of Merit imputed to our workes the Catholique Church teacheth that Eternall life ought to be proposed to the children of God both as a Grace mercifully promised by the meanes of our Sauior IESVS CHRIST and as a Reward which is faithfully rendred to their good workes and to their deserts in virtue of that promise these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent but least the pride of humane nature should be flattered by the opinion of a persuming Merit the same Councel determineth that all the worth and value of Christian good workes is deriued from that sanctifying grace which is freely conferr'd vpon vs in the name of CHRIST JESVS and that is an effect of the continuall influence of that diuine head vpon his depending members True it is indeed that the exhortations the promises the menaces and reproaches of the Gospel doe declare sufficiently that we are to worke our saluation by the motion actings of our own wills concurring with the Grace of God which assists vs but it is a fixt principle that free will can performe nothing in order to Eternall beatitude but by the same degrees it is moued and eleuated by the holy Ghost Whereupon the Church knowing that it is the holy spirit which worketh in vs by his Grace all the good we doe she ought to rest perswaded that the good workes of the faithfull are very acceptable to God of great estimation in his sight and she doth rightfully vse the terme of Merit concurrently with all Christian Antiquity cheefly to signify the value dignity of our workes which we performe by the motion of his Grace But by reason all their sanctity is deriued from God who workes them in vs the same Church hath receiued from the Councel of Trent as the Doctrine of the Catholique Faith this saying of S. August that God crowns his own Gifts when he crowns the Merits of his seruants We intreate all such as loue truth peace to be pleased to read the whole context of the Councel of Trent's words that they once be disabused and deliuered from those wrong impressions which are suggested to them of our Docctrine Notwithstanding we discerne cleerly say the fathers of that Councel that the holy scriptures esteeme so much Good woorks that IESVS-CHRIST himself promiseth that a cupp of cold water giuen a poor body shall not want its reward and that the Apostle declareth that a moment of light payne suffered in this world shall produce an Eternall weight of glory yet God forbid that a Christian should trust glory in himself and not in our Lord whose goodness towards Man is so aboundant that he allowes his own Guifts to them to be accounted their Merits This Doctrine is spread through the whole Councel which teacheth in an other session that we who are not sufficient to doe
any thing alone by our selues can doe euery thing by him who inableth vs so that Man hath nothing wherein he can glorify himself nor any cause to confide in himself but that all his confidence and his glorying is in CHRIST JESVS in whom we liue and in whom we merit in whom we satisfy bearing worthy fruits of repentance which deriue their power from him and by him are offered to God the Father in him are accepted by the Father So that we preferr all our suites place all our hopes render all our thanks by our Lord IESVS-CHRIST We proclaime in a loud voice that we are acceptable to God only in him by him and we can hardly conceaue how any other intent or application can be imputed to vs. We fix in him alone so intirely all the hope of our saluation as we present to God euery day those words in the Sacrifice Vouchsafe ô God to graunt vnto vs sinners your seruants who hope in the multitude of your Mercys some part and fellowship with your blessed Apostles and Martyrs ... into which we humbly beg to be admitted not considering our Merit but forgiuing vs by your Mercy for our Sauiour's sake CHRIST IESVS Shall the Church neuer be able to persuade her children now become her ennemies neither by the explication of her Faith nor the decisions of her Councells nor by her most solemn prayers presented in her Sacrifices that she doth not owne any life nor conceaue any hope but in the merits of IESVS-CHRIST alone and this hope is so powerfull that it imprints in the children of God who walke faithfully in his ways that peace which passeth all vnderstanding as the Apostle assures vs. But yet although this hope be stronger then the promises or menaces of the world and be sufficient to calme the terror of our conscience yet doth it not suppresse intirely our feare by reason that though we are assured that of himself he neuer doth abandon vs we can neuer be certain that we shall not depart from him by our own faylings in reiecting his inspirations and God hath bin pleased to temper allay by this sauing feare that confidence he inspireth into his children for as S. Augustin saith such is our weakenesse in this seate of perills temptations that an entire assurance would produce in vs slacknesse and presumption whereas this fear which in the Apostle's mind makes vs worke our saluation with fear and trembling renders vs more vigilant and moueth vs to fasten our selues by an humble dependance on him who worketh in vs by his grace the will and the acting according to his good pleasure as the same S. Paul declares vnto vs. This is what is most necessary to be held and practised in the Doctrine of iustification and our Adversaries must be very vnreasonable and perverse not to confesse that this Doctrine is sufficient to instruct Christians in their duty of attributing to God by CHRIST IESVS all the glory of their saluation If the Pretending-Reformers after this exposition fly vnto nice subtile questions it is not amisse to aduise them that it is not now proper to raise or insist vpon needlesse difficultys reflecting vpon what they haue condescēded vnto towards an vnion with the Lutherans and what they have graunted to their own fraternity in the points of Grace Predestination That proceding ought to have instructed them to restrain confine their inquiries in this matter to that singly which is of absolute necessity to establish the foundation of Christian piety And if they could once resolue to bound themselues within those limits they would quickly be satisfied soone would desist from their obiecting to vs our nullifying the Grace of God by our ascribing all to good workes since we haue euindenced to them in so cleer termes of the Councel of Trent these three points so decisive in this matter viz. That our sinns are pardon'd by pure mercy for CHRIST JESVS his sake That we owe vnto a free gracious liberality the righteousnesse infused into vs by the holy Spirit And that as many good workes as we performe are so many free guifts of grace And we cannot but confesse that the most Learned of their party doe not now contend so much in this point as they did at the beginning of the Schisme and there are few that will not auowe that a Separation ought not to haue bin made vpon this Controversy But if this so important difficulty in the point of Iustification of which their first Authors raised their strongest fort is no longer accounted so capitall by the most intelligent and sufficient persons of their party we desire them to reflect what iudgment ought to be made of their Separation and how much we might hope a Reconciliation if they would raise their minds from vnder all prepossession and renounce the spirit of Contention It will not be amisse that I explaine further in what manner we conceaue our selues capable to satisfy God by his Grace in order to the leauing no doubt or scruple in this matter The Catholiques doe vnanimously professe teach that CHRIST IESVS only God Man vnited was sufficiently qualifyed by the infinite dignity of his person to make satisfaction for our sinns but hauing superaboundantly satisfyed he had power to apply vnto vs an entire abolition without reseruing any punishment or by commutation of a greater into a lesser penalty that is exchanging an Eternall paine into Temporall sufferances and by reason that this first sort of mercy is the most compleat and most suting to his goodnesse he hath taken that course in our Baptisme but we maintaine that he vseth the second manner in the remission he graunteth to those who after Baptisme relapse into sin being in a manner forced to it by the ingratitude of those who haue abused his guifts so that such offenders are condemned to some temporall paines although the Eternall punishment be remitted But from hence it ought not to be inferr'd that IESVS-CHRIST hath not fully satisfyed for vs but rather the contrary viz that he hauing purchased an absolute right and title of propriety in vs by the infinite price of his blood pay'd for our saluation he graunteth our pardon with what condition and vnder what law and reseruation he pleaseth to impose We should be very vngratefull iniurious to our Sauiour should we presume to question the infinitenesse of his merit by this pretext that hauing pardoned vs the sin of Adam he did not deliuer and free vs at the same tyme from all the consequences of it leauing vs still subiect to death and to so many corporal and spiritual infirmities vnto which that sin hath sentenced vs. It is surely grace enough that IESVS-CHRIST hath once pay'd the price for which we shall one day be deliuered from all the miseries which oppresse vs it is our part to receiue with humility and gratitude euery part of his benefit considering the motion
same name Neuerthelesse our Faith being attentiue to his word who effecteth what euer he pleaseth in heauen and on earth doth acknowledg in this case no other Substance remaining but that which is designed by the same word viz the proper Body and Blood of CHRIST IESVS into which the Bread and the Wine are changed which is what we terme TRANSVBSTANTIATION And notwithstanding this yet the Reality which the Eucharist contains in regard of the interiour part is no impediment to the being a Signe in respect of what it retains of exteriour and sensible but yet a Signe of such a nature as is so farre from excluding a Reality as it carieth it of necessity along with it since in effect this speech This is my Body being pronounced vpon the matter CHRIST IESVS hath chosen is an assured signe that he is Present and although the matters seeme to our senses to remayne the same yet our spirit iudgeth otherwise of them then it would doe if a superiour Authority did not interuene so that although those species and a certaine sequence of naturall impressions which are made on our bodies are vsed to suggest to vs the Substance of Bread Wine yet in this case his Authority whome we beleeue intirely preuailes so much vpon vs that the same species begin to designe to vs an other Substance for we beleeue CHRIST who sayth that which we take and that which we eate is his Body and such is the efficacy of his word as it keeps vs from ascribing to the Substance of Bread these exteriour appearances and moueth vs to referr them to the Body of CHRIST being present vnder them so that the presence of so Adorable an obiect being once ascertain'd to vs by this signe we make no question of offring to it our Adorations I doe not enter into the point of Adoration by reason that the most learned and sober of our Aduersaries haue long since granted vs that the presence of CHRIST IESVS in the Eucharist ought to impose Adoration vpon those who are of that perswasion In fine being once conuinced that the omnipotent words of the sonne of God effect whatsoeuer they pronounce we beleeue vpon good grounds that in the last Supper they produced their effect as soone as they were vttered and vpon a necessary consequence we acknowledg the Reall presence of the Body before our receauing it These preceeding points being supposed the Sacrifice which we assert and maintain in the Eucharist retayns no longer any particular difficulty We haue obserued two actions in this Mystery which cease not to be distinct although the one relateth to the other the first is the Consecration by which the Bread and Wine are changed into the Body and Blood the second is the Eating by which we communicate and partake of them In the Consecration the Body and Blood are mystically separated by reason that CHRIST IESVS said seuerally This is my Body This is my Blood the which includeth a liuely and effectuall representation of the violent death he suffered And so the sonne of God is sett vpon the holy table by vertue of those words couered with signes that represent his death This is what is effected by Consecration and this Religious act carieth with it the protestation of the Soueragnity of God by reason that CHRIST IESVS being present reneweth and in some sort perpetuates the memory of his obedience euen to the death of the Crosse so that indeed there is nothing wanting here towards the rendring it a True Sacrifice Without all question this Religious act as it is distinct from that of the Communion must needs be of it self acceptable to God and must inuite him to looke vpon vs with a more fauorable and propitious eye by reason it presenteth to his sight the voluntary death which his wellbeloued sonne hath suffer'd for sinners or rather replaceth before his eyes euen his own sonne vnder the signes of that death whereby he hath bin appeased and reconciled to Man All Christians confesse that the single presēce of CHRIST IESVS is a most powerfull manner of Intercession before God for all mankind according to this saying of the Apostle CHRIST IESVS presenteth himself and appeareth for vs before the face of God and thereupon we beleeue that CHRIST IESVS being present vpon the holy table in this figure of death intercedeth for vs and representeth continually to his Father the death he hath suffered for his Church It is in this sense we affirme that IESVS-CHRIST offereth himself for vs to God in the Eucharist and in this manner it is we conceaue that this Oblation inuiteth God to become more fauorable and propitious to vs and for this reason we call it Propitiatorie When we reflect vpon what CHRIST IESVS worketh in this mystery and when we looke vpon him by our Faith as actually present vpon the holy table with the signes of death we ioine our selues to him in that estate and we present him to God as our only Victime and as our sole Propitiator by the merit of his Blood protesting that we haue nothing to offer vnto God but IESVS-CHRIST and the infinite merit of his death We consecrate all our prayers by this Diuine Oblation and by our presenting CHRIST IESVS to God we are taught to offer vp our selues at the same time to the Diuine Maiesty in him and by him as liuing Sacrifices Such is the Sacrifice of Christians and infinitely differing from that which was practised in the Law being a Spirituall Sacrifice worthy of the New Couenant wherein the presence of the Victime is not perceaued but by Faith where the word of God is the instrument that separateth Mystically the Body the Blood and cōsequently where the Blood is shed but Mystically and where death interueneth but by Representation and yet a most Reall True Sacrifice for this reason that CHRIST JESVS is truly contained and presented to God in it vnder this figure of death and therefore a Sacrifice also of Commemoration which is so farre though obiected from parting loosening vs from our application to the Sacrifice of the Crosse as it fixeth vs the faster by all its circūstances vnto it since it doth not only relate intirely vnto it but in effect it hath neither being nor subsistance but by this relation from whence it deriueth all the virtue it contains This is the expresse Doctrine of the Catholique Church in the Councel of Trent which teacheth that this Sacrifice is instituted only to the intent of representing that which was once perfected vpon the Crosse and to preserue the Memory of it vnto the end of all ages and apply vnto vs that sauing virtue for the forgiuenes of sinns which we dayly commit Wherefore so farre we are from beleeving that somewhat is wanting to the Sacrifice of the Crosse as quite contrary the Church holds that it was so perfect and so fully sufficient as all which followes it is but ordain'd in order to the