in the 16.19.24.28 where he hath these words God when he commands us to love him is satisfied if we do but obey him in his other Commandments If God had said I will destroy you how obedient soever you may be to me if you do not withall give me your hearts were this a motive proportionable to the end which God might and ought to propose to himself It is therefore said that we shall love God by doing his will as if we had for him all the affection that could be that is as if the motive of charity enclined us thereto If this really happen 't is so much the better if not we shall nevertheless in rigor still obey the commandment of Love by doing the works thereof So that do but observe the goodness of God we are not so much commanded to love him as not to hate him And thus have our Fathers disengaged men from that irksome obligation of loving God actually And this doctrine is of so great importance that our Fathers Annat Pintereau le Moine and A. Sirmond himself have very vigorously maintained it when some made it very much their business to oppose it I refer you to their Answers to the Moral Theologie and particularly to that of Father Pintereau in the 2. p. of the Abbot of Boisie pag. 53. you may judge of the consequence of this Dispensation according to the price which he sayes it cost which is the bloud of JESUS CHRIST This is the consummation of this Doctrine There you will find that to be dispens'd from the troublesome obligation of loving God is the priviledge of the Evangelical Law above the Judaical It was but reasonable saith he that God in the Law of Grace of the New Testament should take away that troublesome and difficult obligation which was in soreâ— under the Law of tigâ—r of â—xe cising acts of perfect contrition in order to Justification and â—t h sh uld institute Sacraments such as in its stead might carry on a more easâ— dispensation Otherwise Christians who are the children could not be reconciled unto and received into the embraces of their Fathe upon so easie te mes as the Jews who were slaves could obtain mercy from their Lord. O Father said I there 's no patience in the world but you are able to overcome nor can a man possibly without horror hear the things you have entertain'd me with They come not from me reply'd the Father I know it very well said I. But I see not any aversion you have for them nay you are so far from detesting the Authors of these Maximes that you highly esteem them Do you not fear left your compliance with them may make you a partaker of their guilt Or can you be ignorant that Saint Paul thinkes worthy of death not onely those who are the Authors of evills but also those that consent thereto Was it not sufficient that by your palliations you have permitted men to do many things which were forbidden but you must further give them occasion to commit even those crimes which by the easinesse and assurance of Absolution so freely by you proffer'd to them for the same you cannot ex use by devesting to that purpose the Priests of all Power and obliging them rather like sl ves then Judges to absolve the most inveterate sinners without requiring the l ast love towards God amendment of life or expression of remorse other then Promises thousands of times broken without doing any penance but what they themselves shall think fit to submit to and without enjoyning them to avoid the occasions of sinning if they receive the least inconvenience thereby But you are yet more extravagant and the liberty you have taken to uâ—settle the most sacred rules of Christian conduct extends to an absolute over-turning of the law of God You violate the great Commandement on which hang all the Law and the Prophets You give Piety an assault in the very heart you deprive it of that spirit whence it derives all vigour and life You affirme the love of God not to be necessary to salvation nay your excesse is such as to pretend that this dispensation from the love of God is the advantage that the world derives from JESUS CHRIST This certainly is the very height of impiety The price of the blood of Jesus Christ shall be to procure us a dispensation from loving him Before the Incarnation men were oblig'd to love God but since that God hath so loved the World as to bestow on it his onely Sonne the world redeem'd by him shall be discharged from loving him Strange Divinity of our dayes That men should presume to take away that Anathema which Saint Paul pronounces against those who love not the Lord JESUS That which Saint John sayes is clearely blown away that he who loveth not remaines in death nay what is said by Jesus Christ himself that he who loves him not keepeth not his commandemenss Thus do they make those worthy the enjoyments of God in Eternity who never lov'd God in their lives Behold the Mystery of iniquity accomplish'd Open your eyes at length Father and if you have not been mov'd by the other extravagances of your Casuists let the extraordinarinesse of those last draw you out of them T is my hearty prayer for you and all your Fathers and withall that God would be pleased so to enlighten them that they may see how uncertain that light is whereby they have been led into such precipices and fill those with his love who give men a dispensation from it After some other discourse of this kind I took leave of the Father And I see no great likelihood of ever visiting him again but be not at all troubled at it for if there be any necessity I should entertain you further with their Maximes I am so well read in their bookes that I am able to acquaint you with as much of their Morality and haply more of their Politicks then he would have done himself I am c. Paris Aug. 2. 1656. To the Reverend Fathers of the Society of JESUS From the Author of the Letters to the PROVINCIAL LETTER XI REVEREND FATHERS I have met with the letters which you scatter abroad in answer to those I have written to one of my friends a PROVINCIALL upon occasion of your Morality wherein one of the principall points of your vindication is that I have not been serious enough when I have treated of your maximes And this you repeat over and over in all your writings and presse so much as to affirme I make sport with holy things This reproch Fathers as it is very much unexpected so is it no less unjust For where do you find me sporting with holy things you particularly instance in in the Contract MOHATRA and the story of JOHN D'ALBA But are those the things which you call holy Do you look on the Mohatra as a thing that requires so much veneration that it is blasphemy not
virtues such strangers both to them and charity whereby they live and are inform'd you will finde such palliations of crimes and such disorders countenanc'd that it will be no longer a miracle to you their maintaining that all men have at all times grace enough to live piously as they understand it But their Morality not exceeding that of Pagans it is within the reach of Nature to observe it When we affirme a necessity of efficacious grace we assign other virtues for its object It is not simply to cure some vices by others it is not onely to engage men in the exercises of the external duties of Religion it is to arrive at a higher virtue then that of the Pharisees and the wisest Heathens The law and reason are graces sufficient to produce these effects But to disingage the soul from the love of this world to deprive her of what she thinks dearest to work in her a self-mortification to elevate and unite her absolutely and unchangeably to her God this this is not the work of any but an Almighty hand And it were irrational for a man to pretend that he hath alwayes full power aâ— it were to deny that these virtues destistitute of the love of God which these good Fathers confound with Christian virtues are not in our power This was his discourse burthened with abundance of passion for he is extremely troubled at these disorders For my part I had a certain esteem for these good Fathers for the excellency of their Politicks and so according to his advice I went to an honest Casuist of the Society whom having known a long time I thought this a good occasion to renew my acquaintance with him Being well enough instructed how they are to be treated I found it no hard matter to do it His entertainment was infinitely kind for he loves me still and after some indifferent discourse I took occasion from the season we now are in to learn something of him concerning Fasting so to enter insensibly into the business I told him it was very burdensome to me to fast he exhorted me to do my self a little violence but I continuing my complaints he was mov'd at it and fell to bethink him of some reasons of dispensation He indeed found a many which yet I could not make any advantage of till at last he bethought him to ask me whether going to bed supperless I was not much troubled to sleep I am indeed Father said I which forces me many times to make a collation at noone and sup at night I am very glad reply'd he that I have found out this way to ease you without sin go go you are not oblig'd to fast at all But you shall not take it upon my word neither come into the Library I went and there taking out a book here 's that will prove it said he God knows how This is Escobar Who is that Escobar said I How do you not know one Escobar of our Society who hath compil'd this Moral Divinity out of twenty four of our Fathers whereupon he hath in the Preface made an allegory between this book and that of the Apocalypse which was seal'd with seven seals And he sayes that Jesus offers it so seal'd to the four living creatures Suarez Vasquez Molina Valentia in the presence of twenty four Jâ—suites who represent the twenty four Elders He read the whole Allegory which he found very pat and by which he gave a great Idea of the excellency of that work Having afterward sought out his passage concerning fasting here I have it said he Is he who having not supp'd cannot sleep oblig'd to fast or no Not at all Are you not satisfied Not absolutely said I for I can make a shift to fast if I but take a collation in the morning and sup at night Why then take the consequence along with you said he they have omitted nothing And what will you say if a man can content himself with a collation in the morning so he sup at night That 's my case He is never the more oblig'd to fast For no man is obl g'd to break the order of his meals A most pregnant reason said I to him But tell me I pray continu'd he do you drink much wine No Father said I my constitution will not bear it This I said reply'd he purposely to give you notice that you might drink of it in the morning and at any other time of the day without breaking your fast and you know that nourishes somewhat Take the question decided May a man drink wine at any time when he pleases and that in a considerable quantity without breaking his fast He may nay if he please Hypocras I had clearly forgot that same Hypocras said he I must needs put it into my Catalogue 'T was an honest fellow and a good fellow this Escobar said I. All the world 's in love with him reply'd the Father he starts out such pleasant questions Here 's another of them in the same place If a man doubts whether he be 21 years of age is he oblig'd to fast or no No. But put the case I am 21 years of age just at one of the clock this night and that to morrow be a fasting day shall I be oblig'd to fast to morrow No. for you may eat as much as you please from mid-night till one of the clok for you are not yet arriv'd to the 21 year of your age and consequently having a right to break the fast you are not oblig'd to keep it Excellent diversion said I The best in the world reply'd he I read him day and night nay can hardly do any thing else The good Father was almost out of himself to see me so pleased with it and continuing observe sayes he this touch of Filiutius one of those 24 Jesuits He who hath over-wearied himself about any thing as for instance in satisfying a Wench is he oblig'd to fast or no By no means But suppose he hath so over-wearied himself out of a set purpose to be dispens'd withal from fasting shall he nevertheless be excus'd Though what he did was meerly the effect of such a formall design yet shall he not be oblig'd to fast Well could you have believ'd so much said he In troth Father said I I am not yet fully perswaded of it What is it not a sin not to fast when a man may do it Or is it lawful to hunt ouâ— the opportunities of firming Or is not a man rather oblig'd to eschew them This certainly were a great convenience Not alwayes said he it is according According to what said I This reply'd the Father if a man should find any inconvenience in avoiding those opportunities were a man in your judgment oblig'd to avoid them Father Bauny holds the negative They sayes he ought not be denied absolution who remain in the very next degrees to sinning if they are in such a condition that they cannot quit them without giving
both sexes living together and by that means mutually induced to sinne It is fit they should be separated said I. He indeed affirmes they should reply'd he in case their relapses be frequent and in a manner quotidian but if their enjoyments are but seldome as haply once or twice a month and that they cannot be separated without incurring some great prejudice and inconvenience they ought to be absolv'd according to his Authors and among others Suarez provided they make good promises not to sinne any more and be tiuely sorry for what is past I understood him so for he had taught me before what the Confessor must be satisfy'd with to judge of that sorrow And Father Bauny continu'd he pag. 1083. and 1084. permits those that are engag'd in the next occasions to continue therein when they cannot avoid them without finding the world matter of discourse or running into some inconvenience thereby In like manner in his Moral Theologie tr 4. de poenit q. 14. pag. 94. and q. 13. pag. 93. he sayes that a Confessor may and ought to absolve a woman who entertaines in her house a man with whom she sinnes often if she cannot disengage him without losse of reputation or that there 〈◊〉 some reason he should be still retain'd si non potest honestè ejicere aut habeat alâ—qam causam retinendi provided she make a resolution not to commit evil with him any more Well Father said I the obligation to quit occasions of sinning is certainly attended with very easie conditions if the least ensuing inconvenience makes it void but if I mistake not a man is obliged thereto even according to your Fathers when there is no trouble at all T is very true reply'd he though this as a generall rule is not without some exception For Father Bauny sayes in the same place It is lawfull for persons of all qualities conditions and sexes to go into the places of common prostitution there to convert sinfull women though it be very probable that they will commit sinne there themselves nay haply though they have found by frequent experience that they are drawn into sinne by the very sight and insinuations of such women And though there are some Doctors who approve not of this opinion and do absolutely believe that it is not lawful for a man to hazard his own salvation to relieve his neighbour yet shall I not stick to embrace the opinion they oppose These Father said I are a new sort of Evangelists but upon what ground is it that Father Bauny gives them this Mission upon a certain principle of his own cited by him out of Basilius Pontius I have given you an account of it formerly and I think you cannot but remember it Ti 's this that a man may directly and for it self primò per se seek after such an occasion for either the temporall or spirituall good of himself or his neighbour These passages I thought so horrid that I was almost in a mind to break off the discourse but I smother'd that sentiment to give him way to proceed and accordingly onely askt him what consonancy is there Father between this doctrine that of the Gospel which obliges a man to pluck out his eyes and to cut off that which is most necessary when it is obstructive as to salvation And how can you imagine that a man voluntarily continuing in the occasions of sinning can sincerely detest sinne Is not the contrary apparent that is that he hath not the sense thereof which he ought to have and that he hath not yet attained that true conversion of the heart which begets in a man as great a love for God as he had had for the Creatures How said he that were little lesse then true contrition It seems you are yet to learne that as Father Pintereâ—u sayes in part 2. pag. 50. of his Abbot of Boisiâ— All our Fathers unanimously teach that it is an errour nay almost a heresy to affirme that contrition is necessary and that attrition alone and that grounded upon no other motive then the torments of Hell which excludes the desire of offending is not sufficient with the Sacrament How Father said I is it almost an article of faith that attrition proceeding from the feare of torment sufficeth with the Sacrament I presume this tenet is particularly held onely by your Fathers For others who believe attrition with the Sacrament to be sufficient doe yet require there should be something in it of the love of God Further some of your owne Authors held not this doctrine so certain heretofore For your F. Suarez hath this expression De poenit q. 90. ar 4. disp 15. sect 4. num 17. Though it be a probable opinion saith he that Attrition is sufficient with the Sacrament yet is it not certaineâ— nay it may be erronâ—ous non est certa potest esse falsa If it be erroneous Attrition is not sufficient to effect a mans Salvatioâ— He therefore that dyes wittingly in that condition voluntarily runs the morall hazard of eternall damnation For this opinion is neither very ancient nor very common Nec valdè antiqua nec multum commùnis Neither was Sanchez over-confident of the certainty of it since he sayes in his Summary l. 1. c. 9. nu 34. That the sick person and the Confessor who at the point of death should be satisfied with Attrition with the Sacrament were guilty of mortall sinne by reason of the great hazard of damnation wherein the Penitent should be if the opinion affirming that Attrition is sufficient with the Sacrament be not certainly true Of the same was Comitolus when he sayes Resp mor. l. 1. q. 32. n. 7.8 that it is not over-certain that attrition is sufficient with the Sacrament How is that sayes the good Father interrupting me at those words it seemes then you read our Authors T is very well done but it were better that when you do read them it were with some of us Do you not perceive that because you have read them alone you conclude that those passages do somewbat prejudice those who now maintaine our doctrine of attrition whereas we should have shewn you that nothing addes more to their reputation For what glory is it to our present Fathers that they have of a sudden so generally spread their opinion that Divines excepted there 's hardly any one but imagines that what we now hold concerning attrition was from the beginning the absolute Creed of the faithfull So that when you demonstrate by our very Fathers that not many yeares since this opinion was not certain what do you but attribute the honour of this establishment to our latest Authors Thus our intimate Friend Diana thought he put an obligation upon us by laying down the several degrees whereby it is come to this height This he does p. 5. tr 13. where he saith That heretofore the ancient Schoolemen held that a man had no sooner committed a mortall sinne but
Homicide according to your Society to kill him that hath given a box o' th eare Lessius sayes it is lawfull in the speculative but that it ought not to be advised in the practiâ—k non consulendum in praxi because of the danger of hatred or murthers prejudiciall to the state likely to ensue thereupon BUT OTHERS ARE OF OPINION THAT AVOIDING THOSE INCONVENIENCES IT IS ALLOVVABLE AND SECURE IN THE PRACTICK in praxi probabilem tutam judicarunt Henriquez c. Thus are opinions scru'd up by degrees to the height of Probability For you have brought this to that pitch by permitting it at length without any distinction of speculation or practise in these termes It is lawfull for a man that hath receav'd a box o' th eare to return it immediatly with his sword not to revenge himselfe but to preserve his reputation This was taught by your Fathers at Caen in the yeare 1644 in their publick writings which the University of Paris put up to the Parliament in their 3. Petition against your doctrine concerning Homicide p. 339. Whence you may observe Fathers that your own Authors do of themselves destroy that frivolous distinction of speculation and practise which the University had discover'd to be ridiculous and the invention of it a secret of your Politicks which it were not amisse to examine For besides that it is necessary it should be understood for the better clearing up of the 15. 16 17. and 18. Impostures it were not amisse to discover by degrees the principles of this mysterious kind of Policy When you undertook to decide cases of Conscience in a gentle and complying way you met with some wherein Religion onely was concerned as the questions concerning contrition penance the Love of God and al those that relate to the interiour of mens consciences But you have found others wherein the State is concerned as well as Religion such as are those of Vsury Bankrupt Homicide and the like And it is a thing lies very heavy on the spirits of those who have a reall love for the Church to see that in abundance of occasions wherein you had onely Religion to deale withall this world being not the place where God visibly exercises his justice you have subverted the Laws thereof without the least feare caution or distinction as may be seen in your so confident opinions against penance and the Love of God But in those wherein both Religion and the state are concerned you have cloven your decisions and in such casâ—s formed two questions One you call that of speculation wherein considering those crimes in themselves without regarding the interest of the State but onely the law of God prohibiting them you have without any trouble allowed them and consequently overturned the law of God that condemned them The other you call that of practise wherein reflecting on the prejudice of the State thereby and the presence of the Magistrates who maintain the publick safety you do not alwaies allow in the practise those murthers and crimes which you found lawfull in the speculation so to secure your selves as to the Judges Thus for instance to the question whether it be lawfull to kill for opprobrious speeches your Authors Filâ—utius tr 29. cap. 3. num 52 Reginaldus l. 21. cap. 5. num 63. and others answer It is lawfull in the speculation ex probabili opinione licet But I do not approve the practise of it by reason of the great number of murthers which would happen and the prejudice it would be to the state if all evill speakers were killed besides that a man might be punished by the hand of justice for killing upon that occasion Thus do yoâ— opinions at first shoot forth under this distinction by means whereof you ruine onely Religion without doing any visible injury to the State Thus do you think your selves in a secure posture For you imagine that the esteem you have in the Church will keep men from punishing your attempts against truth and that the caution you use in not allowing what you think lawfull to be put in practise will secure you as to the Magistrates who not being judges of cases of Conscience are not properly to meddle with any thing but the externall practise Thus an opinion which were condemnable under the name of practise is securely advanced under that of speculation Now this foundation being well laid it is no hard matter to build up your other maximes upon it There was an infinite distance between the prohibition which God made to kill and the speculative permission which your Authors have given to do it But the distance between this permission and the practise is not very great All then you have to do is to shew that what is allowable in the speculative is also in the practise To do this you cannot want reasons you have been furnished in cases of much more difficulty Would you see Fathers how it may be attained Follow this ratiocination of Escobar who hath clearly decided it in the first of the sixe Tomes of his grand Morall Divinity which I mentioned before where he is otherwise illuminated then he was in the collection he made of your 24. Ancients For whereas he thought at that time there might be opinions probable in the speculative which yet were not secure in the practice he hath since found out the contrary and hath established it in this last work of his so strangely is the doctrine of Probability cultivated by time as well as every probable opinion in particular Heare himself in praeloq n. 15. I see not saith he how it should be that what seems allowable in the speculative should not be such in the practick since that what may be done in the practick depends on what is found allowable in the speculative and that these things differ not one from another but as the effect and the Cause For speculation is that which determines the action WHENCE IT FOLLOVVETH THAT A MAN MAY WITH A SAFE CONSCIENCE FOLLOVV IN THE PRACTICK THE OPINIONS THAT ARE-PROBABLE IN THE SPECULATIVE nay and that with more safety then those which a man hath not speculatively well examined Certainly Fathers your Escobar reasons very well sometimes And indeed there is such an allyance between specution and practise that when one hath taken cus and hath taught That it is lawfull ken root you make no difficulty to permit the other without shadowing the businesse at all This is apparent in the permission to kill for a box o' th eare which from simple speculation hath by Lessius been confidently stretched to a practise which ought not easily to be permitted and thence by Escobar to an easy practise whence your Fathers of Caen have cran'd it up to an absolute permission without any distinction of Theory or practise as you have already seen Thus do you give your opinions an insensible growth Should they of a sudden shoot out into their extremities they would cause horrour But this slow and
him and do still maintain that Calumny when it is us'd against a Calumniator though grounded on absolute falsities is not for that any mortal sin either against Justice or Charity And to prove it I have brought a cloud of our Fathers to witness it and whole Vniversities consisting of them all whom I have consulted and among others the Reverend Father John Gaâ—s Confessor to the Emperor the Reverend Father Daniel Bastele Confessor to the Arch-Duke Leopold Father Henry sometime Preceptor to those two Princes all the publick and ordinary Professors of the Vniversity of Vienna consisting wholly of Jesuits all the Professors of the Vniversity of Grats a place absolutely Jesuitical all the Professors of the Vniversity of Prague whereof the Jesuits are Masters of all whom I have at hand the approbations of my opinion written and signed with their own hands besides that I have on my side Father Pennalossa a Jesuit Preacher to the Emperour and the King of Spain Father Pilliceroli a Jesuit and a many others who had accounted this opinion probable before any dispute between us You see hence Fathers there are few opinions you have made it so much your business to establish as this as there were not many whereof you stood so much in need Insomuch that you have accordingly authorised it so far that the Casuists quote it as an infallible principle It is most certain sayes Caramouel num 1151. that it is a probable opinion that it is not any mortal sin to calumniate falsly to preserve ones honour For it is maintained by above twenty grave Doctors by Gasper Hurtado and Dâ—castillus Jesuits c. so that if this doctrine were not probable there were hardly any such in all the body of Divinity What abominable Divinity is this which is so corrupt in all its main heads that if it be not profitable and secure in point of Conscience that a man may calumniate where there is no crime to preserve his honour there is hardly any of all its decisions that is such How probable is it Fathers that those who maintain this principle should not sometimes put it in practise The degenerate inclination of men is apt enough of it selfe to bend them that way and that so violently that it must needs break out with all its natural impetuosity when the obstacle of Conscience is once taken away Would you have an instance of it Caramouel furnishes you in the same place This Maxime saith he of Father Dicastillus the Jesuit concerning Calumny having been by a Countess of Germanie taught the Empress's Daughters the confidence they thence took that it was no sin at most but venial to scatter calumnies up and down bred in a few dayes so many together with so much opprobrious language and such a number of false reports that it put the whole Court into alarm and combustion For it is not hard to imagine what use they might make of it so that to appease this tumult they were forced to send for a Religious Capuchin a man of an exemplary life named Father Quiroga 't was this that Dicastillus quarrell'd with him so much for who came and made it apper to them that that Maxime was a most pernicious one especially among women and he took a particular care to oblige the Empress absolutely to abolish the use of it There is no reason to be surpris'd at the lewd consequences of this Doctrine It were on the contrarie a miracle it should not produce this loosness self-Self-love is ever prone enough to perswade us that whenever any thing is laid to our charge it is unjustly much more may it you Fathers whom Vanitie hath so strangely blinded as that you would make the world believe in all your writings that to blast the honour of your Society is to derogate from that of the Church And thus Fathers were there some reason to think it strange you should not put this Maxime in practise For we must no longer affirme that of you which some have done that know you not How would they calumniate their Enemies when they cannot do it without endangering their Salvation But we must on the contrarie say thus How would they let slip the advantage of discrediting their enemies when they may do it without hazarding their Salvation Be it therefore no longer a miracle to find the Jesuits Detractors they are such in safety of conscience and nothing can hinder them from being so since that by the credit they have in the world they may calumniate without any fear of being accountable to the justice of men and that by the prerogatives they assume to themselves in cases of conscience they have establish'd such Maximes as that they may do it without any fear of the justice of God This this Fathers is the source whence spring so many horrid impostures This is the treasury whence your Father Brisacier was so well furnish'd as to scatter so many that they drew upon him the censure of the late Arch-Bishop of Paris This it was that engag'd your Father d'Anjou to discredit even in the Pulpit in the Church of Benedict on the 8. of March 1655. those persons of qualitie who receiv'd the charitie for the poor of Picardy and Champagn whereto they contributed so much themselves and with an horrid falsitie to affirme and such as might well damme up those charities were there any credit to be given to your impostures That he knew of a certainty that those persons had converted the money to other uses to be employed against the Church and against the State Which gave the Pastor of the Parish who is a Doctor of Sorbonne occasion to preach the next day meerly to refute those calumnies 'T is by the same principle that your Father Crasset hath preach'd so many impostures in Orleans that the Lord Bishop of that place thought himself oblig'd to suspend him as a publick â—mpostor by his Mandate of September 9. wherein he declares That he forbids Brother John Crasset of the Society of Jesus to preach in his Diocess and all his people to hear him under pain of being guilty of a mortal disobedience for that he hath been informed that the said Crasset had made a discourse in the pulpit full of falshood and calumnies against the Ecclesiasticks of that City falsly and maliciously charging them that they maintained heretical and impious propositions as That it is impossible to keep the commandments of God That a man can never resist interiour grace and that JESUS CHRIST died not for all men and other the like condemn'd by Innocent X. For this Fathers is your ordinary imposture and the first which you lay to their charge whom it concernes you should be disgraced And though it be as impossible for you to prove it against any as for your Father Crasset against those Ecclesiasticks of Orleans yet are not your Consciences in the least disturbance because you believe this manner of reviling those who meddle with you to be so
corrupt the most canonicall and sacred expressions that may be by the malicious subtilties of your new sangled equivocations For who ever hath made use of other termes then those and that particularly in simple discourses of Piety where there is nothing of controversie medled with And yet the love and respect they have for that holy mysterie hath given them occasion to speak so much of it in their writings that I defie you Fathers as craftie as you are to find therein the least shadow of ambiguity or compliance with the tenents of Geneva All the world knowes Fathers that the heresie of Geneva essentially consists as you expresse it your selves in believing that Jesus Christ is not enclosed within that Sacrament That it is impossible he should be in severall places That he is truly no where but in heaven and that there onely he is to be adored and not upon the Altar That the substance of the bread remaines That the body of I. Christ enters not into the mouth nor the breast That he is not eaten but by Faith and consequently that the unfaithfull eat him not And that the masse is so far from being a Sacrifice that it is an abomination Now see Fathers after what manner Port-Royal conspires with Geneva in their bookes There you may read to your confusion that the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ are contained under the species of bread and wine M. Arnaulds second Letter pag. 259. That the holy of holyes is present in the Sanctuary and that he ought to be adored there Ibid. p. 243. That Jesus Christ dwells in the Sinners that communicate by the true and reall presence of his body in their breast though not by the presence of his spirit in their hearts Freq Com. 3. part ch 16. That the dead ashes of the Saints bodies derive their principall dignity from that seed of life remaining in them after the touching of the immotall and enlivening flesh of Jesus Christ 1 Part. ch 40. That it is not thâ—ough any naturall power but through Gods omnipotence to which nothing is impossible that the body of Jesus Christ in inclosed under the heast and under the least part of every hoast Fam. Divin Lect. 15. That the divine vertue is present to preduce the effect which the words of consecration signifie Ibid. That Jesus Christ who lyes dejected upon the Altar is at the same time elevated in his glory that he by himself and through his own power is in severall places at the same time as well in the midst of the Church triumphant as Church militant Of suspension Reason 21. That the Sacramentall species remain suspended and subsist after an extraordinary manner without being upheld by any subject and that the body of Jesus Christ is also suspended under the species that it depends not on them as substances depend on accidents Ibid. 23. That the substance of the Bread is changed the accidents remaining unchangeable In the prose of the blessed Sacrament That Jesus Christ rests in the Eucharist with the same glory as he hath in heaven Letters of M. Saint Cyran Tom. 1. Let. 93. That his glorious humanity resides in the tabernacles of the Church under the species of bread which visibly cover it and that knowing us to be dull he takes that course to induce us to the adoration of his Divinity which is present in all places by that of his humanity which is present in one particular place Ibid. That we receive the body of Jesus Christ upon the tongue and that it is sanctifyed by his divine touching Let. 32. That he enters into the mouth of the priest Let. 72. That though Jesus Christ be made inaccessible in the Blessed Sacrament through an effect of his love and clemency yet doth he still continue his inaccessibility therein as an inseparable condition of his divine nature for though there be therein onely the body and blood by vertue of the words vi verborum as the Schoole speaks yet that hinders not but that his whole Divinity as well as his whole humanity may be there by a necessary consequence and conjunction Vindication of the Rosarie of the Blessed Sacrament pag. 217. And lastly That the Eucharist is as well a Sacrifice as a a Sacrament Fam. Divin Lect. 15. And that though this Sacrifice be a commemoration of that of the Crosse yet is there this difference between them that that of the Masse is offered onely for the Church and for the faithfull included within its communion whereas that of the Crosse was offered for all the world as the Scripture speakes Ibid p. 15. This is sufficient Fathers to let the world see evidently that there hath not been haply since the beginning of it a greater impudence then this of yours But yet I will go a little further and make you pronounce this sentence against your selves For what caution would you have to take away all suspicion of a mans conspiring with Geneva If Monsieur Arnauld sayes your Father Meyniâ—r p. 83. had said that in this adorable Mystery there were not any substance of the bread under the species but onely the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ I should have confessed that he had absolutely declared himself against Geneva Confesse it then Impostors and make him publick reparation for this publick injury How often have you seen as much in the passages before cited But besides the Familiar Divinitie of Monsieur de Saint Cyrâ—n being approved by M. Arnauld must needs contain the sentiments of both Read then the whole fifteenth Lecture and particularly the second Article and there you shall find the words you desire and that more formally then you have expressed them your selves Is there any bread left in the hoast and any wine in the Chalice Not any for the whole substance of the bread as also that of the wine are taken away to make place for that of the body and blood of Jesus Christ which remaines therein covered onely with the qualities and species of bread and wine Now Fathers will you still affirme that Port-Royal teaches nothing which is not receiv'd by Geneva and that Monsieur Arnauld hath not said any thing in his second Letter which might not have been said by a Minister of Charenton Do you make Mestrezat speak as Monsieur Arnauld does in that Letter pag. 237 c. That is an infamous falsity to charge him with denying Trans-substantiation that he takes for the foundation of his booke the truth of the reall presence of the Son of God opposite to the heresie of the Calvinists That he thinks himself happy to be in a place where the Holy of Holies who is present in the Sanctuary is continually adored which certainly is a thing stands at a greater distance from the belief of the Calvinists then the reall presence it self since that as Cardinal Richelieu saies in his Controversies pag. 536. The new Ministers of France being united with the Lutherans who believe it have thereby