that it is no more a process to be instructed it 's all instructed already and they can do no more for their part to put it in a condition to be discerned on But who shall be the Judge of it It shall be every one of you according to the Principles of your own Religion For according to the Principles of ours there would be no question at all because on one hand our Church has all the marks by which it has been judged since St. Augustin's time that we ought to acknowledge it the true Church of Jesus Christ And on the other we believe that Jesus Christ has given to his Church an infallible Authority to which every particular person is bound to submit But your Church is grounded on another Maxim directly contrary and you are made to believe that every one of you have right to examine and judge after all your Ministers assembled in a General Synod could say unto you Make use then of the liberty which is given you even to the end you may be sure if they had reason or not to give it you Read and Judge but read with such attention and care as you would bring to comprehend an Affair upon which depended the Life of one of your best Friends and judge with that Conscience and sincerity of Heart with which you would desire to be judged if your Life or Death depended on the Judgment they were to make of you And indeed there is no less at the stake in this occasion only with this difference that these Men who should Judge you could not preserve your Life but for a little time nor condemn you but to a Death which sooner or later you could not eschew Whereas it is of far greater importance to you to discern in this process after the instruction that is given you of the same for in judging it aright and having nothing but God before your eyes you may eschew a Death which never ends a Death which all those will incur who have been made to look upon as a Damnable Errour the Ancient and perpetual Faith of the most sublime Mystery of our Religion and may put your selves in a condition to enjoy one day a Life eternally happy after having received the pledge thereof by the real and true partaking of the Worlds Saviour wherewith the Catholick Church nourishes her Children THE FAITH OF THE CATHOLICK CHVRCH Concerning the EUCHARIST Invincibly proved by the Argument used against the Protestants in the Books of Mr Arnaud entituled The Perpetuity of the Faith c. THere is no Christian can deny that a Doctrine regarding one of the principal Mysteries of Religion such as is the Eucharist * The Controversie of the Eucharist is one of the most important of those which makes the separation betwixt the Roman Church and the Protestants says Mr. Claud p. 1. of the Preface of his Answer to Mr. Arnaud The Article of the Eucharist in my Judgment is one of the most essential says M. de Larroque Minister at Rouen in his Preface to the History of the Eucharist which had been always believed in the Universal Church is a Doctrine taught by the Apostles to the first Believers We shall then have proved the Doctrine of the Real Presence such as the Roman Church now believes it to be the Apostles Doctrine when we shall have proved it to be that which has always been believed in all the Churches of the World. Now it 's impossible but it must have been always believed in all Churches If being certain it was universally believed in some Ages we can demonstrate that it could not proceed from an innovation or change of its ancient Faith that the Church of these Ages began to believe it The business will be compleatly done then if we can make out this And thus we make it out SECT 1. ARGUMENT All the Churches both of the East and West were found to be united in the Belief of the Real Presence towards the beginning of the eleventh Century and they are found to be yet united in the same Belief excepting onely some new Sects of the last Age. But it is impossible this Belief should have been established of new or by an innovation of their ancient Faith in all these Churches and yet no trace nor memorial of that Innovation appeared And it is certain there has appeared none at all neither from Paschasius his time to that of Berengarius nor from Berengarius his time even to this day Therefore it is certain that the Doctrine of the Real Presence is the perpetual Doctrine of the Church and consequently none can maintain the contrary without being an Heretick THe first Proposition which is called the major has two parts one that the Churches of the East were united in the same Faith concerning the Eucharist with the Roman Church in Berengarius his time The other that they are united with the same at this time The second Proposition which is called the minor has likewise two parts One that supposing the truth of the major as to Berengarius's time it 's impossible that the innovation pretended by the Calvinists to have been made in all Churches from Paschasius to Berengarius could be made in that time The other that if it was not made in that time in all the Eastern Churches it would be impossible it could have been made from Berengarius's time to this day SECT 2. The general Proof of the major in respect of Berengarius his time A Matter of fact unanimously asserted by contemporary Authors who cannot be suspected to have been deceived or intending to deceive and which has not been contradicted by those who were most concerned to contradict it ought to be held for most certain and undoubted But we have shewn from the very beginning of the first Treatise of the Perpetuity and in the first Tome 2 Book 7 Chap. and 9 Book 1 Chap. That all those who wrote against Berengarius Adelmanus who had studied under S. Fulbert Hugo Bishop of Langres Deodurnus Bishop of Leige Lanfrancus Archbishop of Canterbury Durandus Abbot of Troarn Guitmondus Archbishop of Aversa in Italy did all of them reproach to him That he had separated himself from the unity of the Holy Church that he scandalized the whole Church that none before him had dreamed of his Follies that his Heresie was so notorious that there needed not a Council assembled to condemn it that he impugned what the Church taught througbout the World That the Berengarians had not for themselves one sole Town nor so much as one Village And in a word that there needed no more but to ask the Latins the Greeks the Armenians and generally all the Christians of whatsover Nation and all would answer That they believed the change of the terrestical substance of the Bread and Wine by the infallible incomprehensible and miraculous operation of the Omnipotence of God into the essence or substance of the Lords Body We did likewise
it 's very like they all speak the same Language though they should not so boldly maintain so great a falshood it 's most certain they are very careful to conceal from you the general agreement of all these great Societies with the Roman Church not only in point of the Eucharist but likewise in many other points as the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayer for the Dead the Invocation of Saints the Honour of their Images and Reliques for which they have always induced you to condemn us as superstitious and Idolaters You cannot now doubt any more that they have maliciously disguised the Truth to you concerning all this what confidence then can you have in them in beholding clearly that they cheat you in matters of that importance where your Salvation is at the stake Perhaps you will say there is none but Mr. Claud who is guilty of this fault and that it 's true he is much to be blamed for denying things so unquestionable as is the great agreement of all those Churches with the Roman in all these Points But as we have already shown them Tom. 3 of the Perpetuity pag 805. that it was not to take part in a procedure so unbeseeming and disingenuous as is that of Mr. Claud to have suffered in a common Cause that he who had taken upon him their defence should establish it upon a notorious falshood and for four or five years debate about a matter of fact which ingenuity sincerity ought to have made be acknowledged the first day ought they not to have publickly disaproved this procedure and not have permitted that in the enterprise of defending what they take for truth the truth should be wounded by imposing upon the whole ' East to believe what it believes not Mean while consider if there be any Minister who disaproved Mr. Claud during so long a time as that Dispute lasted and very far from that there is very lately one of the most Famous and Learned Professours Mr. Spanhemius of the united Provinces who heaps up Praises on Mr. Claud for the advantages he pretends he has carried in this Dispute whereof the chief Point was to know if the Oriental Churches did really agree with the Roman in point of the Eucharist and who with a wonderful confidence affirms that his Illustrious Brother has exposed to open view the vanity of the suppositions of his Adversary by which he can mean no other but the principal matter of fact which the Author of the Perpetuity had taken for the ground of his whole Discourse viz. that all the Churches of the World were united in the Faith of the Real Presence in the time of Berengarius as they are likewise at this present time Lo here what Mr. Spanhemius dares call most false suppositions vanissimas Hypotheses altho ' you see with your own eyes that they are undenyable truths But you ought to be much more astonished to see that he is not ashamed to make the most authentick and most solemn attestations that ever a Church did give of her Faith pass for precarious Testimonies which ought not be noticed as having been given by Mercenary Souls who betrayed their Conscience in letting themselves be corrupted for money Tom. 3. of the Perpet 806. For what can you conclude from that but that among those of your Party no reguard is had to the truth and those who reigns in it by the confidence people has in them and by the Authority they attribute to themselves care not by what means they keep the People adhereing to them that falsehoods are equally good to them as truths when they produce this effect and provyding an Author make noise and be able to amuse the World with the sound of his words the most intelligent amongst the Calvinists are glad to let him be doing and considers always as an advantage the impression they make thereby upon the generality of their Party But you ought not stop here it is yet more important for you to consider that Mr. Claud did not engage himself to the denyal of so certain matters of fact and the other Ministers to applaud his Art to colour these falshoods but because they saw no other way to extricate themselves from the difficulty they were in To suppose as they did that all the Churches of the world had been for nine Ages without believing the Real Presence and to find them all united in this Belief at the beginning of the eleventh Age without that any one perceived this change or any mark or memory of it remaining is a Chimere so absurd to be maintained that they themselves were amazed at it Therefore to give it a little more liklyhood it was needful to restrict this Innovation within the limits of the Latin Church and to pretend that all the rest had not changed and were all Berengarians and had always been such when Berengarius was condemned in the West You cannot then be perswaded of the contrary as there is no man of good sence but ought to be by only reading what I have said in the 1 and 2 Sect. and yet more by reading the Chapters I have marked of the 1 Tom of the Perpet you cannot I say be convinced of the agreement of the Greek Church of that time but you must conclude that that pretended Innovation without which Calvinism cannot subsist is a work of the Father of Lyes for it ought to have had place in all the Churches of the World as well as in the Roman which they well saw was so inconceivable as Mr. Claud cryes out for fear lest he be necessitate to shew how its possible that insensible change was made at the same time over all the World The Question is not of the whole World The Question is of the Occident and of the Provinces subject to the Obedience of the Pope But the condition of the Greeks at present and of all the other Oriental Communions threw back your Ministers into the same difficulty for if they had granted that they also held all at present the Real Presence Transubstantiation and the Adoration and are perswaded they never had another Faith whom could they have made believe that this had happened four or five hundred years since by an insensible change in all these Communions of whom many have no connexion with one another it being they mutually accuse others of Heresie without so much as one person perceiving the Innovation Therefore it was needful to say farther that it was false the Oriental Churches were of this Faith and that this could not be true but only of some Latinised Greeks and not at all of the true Greeks But they are of this Faith whether Mr. Claud will or not you are doubtless perswaded thereof But beware lest for want of application to the most important Affair you have in the world which is that of your Salvation you smother the natural consequences you ought to draw from this conviction for you ought to say 1. Our Ministers have cheated us hitherto in denying many years pertinaciously and as far as can be judged against their own Consciences in a dispute of Religion a thing which is more clear than the light of the day we have then no reason to trust our selves to so blind guids and so void of sincerity 2. They deny or dissemble matters of fact so certain and important to be known for no other Reason but because being acknowledged to be true the pretended Innovation in the belief of the Eucharist in all the Churches of the World cannot subsist I cannot then be convinced as I am of the truth of these matters of fact but I must also be convinced that that Innovation is a dream invented by Aubertin and other Ministers because they saw well without that they could not hinder themselves from being looked upon as Innovators and Hereticks 3. It s not only in the belief of the Eucharist that these great Oriental Societies agree with the Roman Church it is also in the Sacrifice of the Mass in Prayer for the Dead in the Invocation of Saints in the Honour given to their Reliques and Images which our Ministers incessantly represent to us as Doctrins of Antechrist for which we ought to have made separation from the Roman Church and which are the most common subject of their invectives against that Church Now I see clearly all that is ill grounded since all other Christian Communions who are not subject to that pretended Antechrist have on all that the same Faith which the Roman Catholicks have I have therefore great reason to fear that I cannot in conscience continue to stay with Calumniators and Schismaticks and consequently I cannot do better than to return back whence our Fathers ought not to have come forth I think there is no intelligent Person will deny these consequences to be just yet it is so great a matter to change Religion that the conviction of the understanding is not sufficient for that effect God must besides touch the Heart with his Grace Prayer must beg this Favour from him and Hope must expect it from his Mercy FINIS Approbation of the Doctors WE underwritten Doctors in Theologie of the faculty of Paris do certify we have read 〈◊〉 Book Entituled The Faith of the Catholick Church concerning the Eucharist invincibly proved c with a Preface in form of a Letter to the Gentlemen of the pretended Reformed Religion by M We have found them conform to the Rules of Faith and most profitable for the conversion of Heriticks The Author sets down therein in Abridgement what is contained in several Volumns to the end he might facilitate the means of being instructed of the Truth of this great Mystery to those who might not have the leasure to read these Volumns entirely This is the judgement weâ—â—â—ke of this little but excellent Work at Paris the oâ— of November 1683. AUGET of the House of Sorbon RICHER of the House of Navarr
Cogitations It would have doubtless been the principal Occupation of these Paschasites and these Paschasites who should have so changed the Faith of the whole Church could be no other than Men who were considered as the Heads of the Religion of that Age and who by their Authority drew the Ecclesiasticks and People after them Now we have the Lives of the most part of these persons written by Authors contemporary or at least of the following Age. We can reckon more than twenty of them whom I omit for brevity and resume the Discourse by this reflection But it is not said neither of these Saints nor of any other that they preached the Doctrine of the Real Presence that they were zealous for its establishment that they converted many persons to this Belief And that which should have been their chiefest occupation and the principal object of their Zeal and Devotion according to Mr. Clauld's fancies is not so much as observed by the Historians save only by St. Odo Archbishop of Canterbury Uncle to St. Oswald but in a manner far from giving ground to think that the Belief of the Real Presence was not that of his time The History of St. Odo which William of Malmsbury draws from Osborn carries onely that several persons doubting of the verity of the Eucharist he confirmed them in the Faith by a Miracle in shewing the Host changed into Flesh Plurimos de veritate Dominici corporis dubitantes says William of Malmsbury it a roboravit ut panem Altaris ver sum in carnem vâ—num calicis in sanguinem propalam ostenderet denuo in pristinam speciem retorta usui humano conducibilia faceret Guil Malmsb. in Odone The matter of fact is acknowledged by the Protestants themselves though Baleus no less than Aubertin ascribes it to the Devil mendacibus Satanae miraculis This proves indeed that there were in St. Odo's time some persons who doubted of the Real Presence which is no strange thing being that the Mysteryitself is capable to excite these kind of doubts And besides this John Scot had retired himself to England where he might have made some private Disciples of his Doctrine But here it s manifestly seen that this doubt was condemned by Odo Head of the English Church who having been lookt upon as a Saint by those of his time and not accused of Errour by any is an unquestionable Witness of the Faith of the Church of England during the Tenth Age The same Osborn in the Life of St. Dunstan chap. 44. speaks likewise of the Eucharist but onely occasionally and to shew how much this Saint was replenished with the Spirit of God Being returned says he to the Altar he changed the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by the holy Benediction And when he had given the Blessing to the People he left once more the Altar to preach and being inebriated with the Spirit of God he spake of the verity of the Body of Jesus Christ of the future Resurrection and of Life eternal in such a manner that one would have thought they heard speaking a Man already beatified Lo here the rank which was given to the Article of the Real Presence in the Tenth Age. It ought moreover to be concluded from the example of St. Odo that if all the Authors of the Lives of Saints had had any such thing to be related of those whose Lives they wrote and if they had had ground to remark the Conversions they had made they would not have omitted to have done it and consequently their silence is an evident proof that these Saints never had it in their view to inspire the Doctrine of the Real Presence that they never dream'd of this project And as it could not have been established by others than by them it follows that it was not established by any person in that Age because it needed not being the ancient Belief of preceeding Ages After having remarked what ought to have been found in the Lives written particularly of the Saints of that time we pass next to the Histories Annals and Chronicles The same observation may be made on the Historian Ditmarus Bishop of Mersbourg who at least had no less intention to write the Ecclesiastical History of his time than that of the Temporal State of Germany His great Birth did not suffer him to be ignorant of what passed in his time He was an intimate Friend of all the Bishops of his Age and he makes the Eloge of several of them in his History wherein are reckoned to the number of eleven He speaks of a great many others and makes his own Life in his History but he neither mentions of himself nor of any other that took pains to establish the Belief of the Real Presence Will Mr. Claud say that all these Bishops had no part in this Work or that the matter was not worth the remarking Will he pretend that to withdraw Germany from an Opinion which the Paschasites must have lookt upon as a detestable Crime to perswade the World a Doctrine so contrary to Reason and which they judged so necessary for Salvation was a thing too trivial to appear in the Eloge of these Bishops We find the same silence in all the other Historians of the Ninth and Teâ—th Age how sollicitous soever they were to transmit to us the Affairs of the Church There are reckoned up ten what Histories what Annals or Chronicles which says not so much as one word of that establishment of the Real Presence of these Disputes of these Conversions nor of the Zeal of the Bishops of that time to instruct all the people in that Doctrine In a word as Mr. Claud who is acute enough to forsee what ought to be misses not to rank amongst those means which could advance the establishment of the Real Presence the Intrigues of Courts the Combinations of great Men the Interests of Bishops and other worldly Engines and which he says he would have remarked if he had been living at that time It must be granted to him that Intrigues which should have had so great effects ought to have been most remarkable and yet we find no mention at all made of them in any of the contemporary Authors who wrote the Lives of the Princes and Princesses of this Age as in Wittichindus Ditmarus Glaber Rodolphus Helgaldus Odilo and several others Many proofs are there seen of the Zeal of these two Princes for Religion and it 's hard to find any who were more careful who had more favour for the Church and who had more esteem and affection for the holy Bishops and Religious Men of their time And if it was true that the Doctrine of the Real Presence was introduced in their time it must have been by their Authority and favour Whence comes it then that that Zeal and all these Actions which should have flowed from it have not been observed by any Author And that in the telling us
concerning the Eucharist where they say it is contained They are not then there according to his principle Perhaps he will say that our preoccupation hinders us to perceive what seems to him so clear and natural but besides that we will say the same to him we will oppose to him so many millions of Christians of the East and West who for so many preceeding Ages believe the Real Presence and who never perceived that metaphorical and figurative sence We will oppose to him Luther whom Zuinglius considers as one Eye of the Protestant Church Vnum Corpus sumus Caput Christus est alter oculus Lutherus est Zuing. Tom 2. f. 359. who could not perceive this figurative sence be so much desired to incommodate the Papacy with and who was so far from being preoccupied against this figurative explication that on the contrary he had a violent inclination leading him towards it as he declares himself by these words which he adds in his Letter to those of Strasbourg Prohdolor plus aequo in hanc partem propensus sum Mr. Claud then must avow that his belief concerning the Lords Supper is not in holy Scripture seeing we do not perceive it there and seeing so many millions of Christians never found it there I conclude therefore that he is mistaken with all those who imagines as he does that there is nothing so clear and natural as his figurative sence in the Words of Jesus Christ So horrible a mistake in these Gentlemens measures should indeed convince them that all their Arguments must be false and all their ways deceitful And I see nothing more unreasonable than wilfully to continue to follow Guides who draws them so far away from the nature and true rule of Expressions For seeing that the true meaning of the Words of Jesus Christ is doubtless that which he intended to signifie by these words and that the sence in which they were to be taken was not unknown to him can it be doubted that he had the intention to express the meaning in which these words have been actually taken by all the Christians of the World for so many Ages by-gone rather than that in which they were understood by a small number of Berengarians in the Eleventh Age whose Ring-leader did thrice abjure his Doctrine as an Heresie and by a few Sects of the late Age who mutually condemn one another of Errour and Impiety viz. the Socinians the Anabaptists the Quakers the Independents the Calvinists c. I know well that Mr. Claud pretends that the Believers of the first eight Centuries which he calls the fair days of the Church Answer to the Treatise part 2. chap. 3. p. 295. during which he says errour durst not appear did understand the words of Jesus Christ in the sence those of his Religion understands them But we have now right to suppose the contrary as a matter beyond debate because we have proved it in so convincing a manner in the last two Tomes of the Perpetuity that he has not been able to answer to it and we have so secured the proofs of Catholicks from the Cavils and Subtilties of the Ministers that it is impossible they can obscure them But though we had not shewn as we have done in these Works that the Believers of these first Ages had no other Belief concerning the Eucharist but that which we have at present it is enough to have shewn by unquestionable proofs which are reduced to a compend in this Book the union and agreement of all Christian Societies for so many Ages in the belief of the Real Presence because that union and agreement decides instantly the sence of Tradition in letting us see that seeing this Doctrine could not be established by Innovation it must be the original Doctrine of the Church and consequently that the Believers of the first Ages had the same belief concerning this Mystery as those of the following Ages SECT 9. The Argument of the Perpetuity serves also to decide the Controversie concerning the meaning of the expressions of the holy Fathers in matter of the Eucharist THe Argument which proves the Agreement of all the Eastern Societies with the Roman Church in the Belief of the Real Presence for so many Ages does not only shew us Tradition concerning the literal sence of the words of Jesus Christ It also decides instantly the Controversie we have with the Protestants concerning the meaning of those expressions which are found so frequent in the Books of the holy Fathe 1. Tertul. contra Marc. c. 4. Euseb Caesar in Parall Damasc l. 3. c. 45 Cyrill Hierosol 4. Catech. myst Greg. Nyssâ— de Babâ— Chrâ—sti Aug Serm 87. de divâ—â—sis citat à Beda â—n Epist ad Corinth c. 10.2 Gaud. tract 2. in Exod. 3. Greg. Nâ—ss Orat. Catech. Amb. de init c. 4. Cyrill Catech. 4. myst Euseb emiss Sssrm 5. de Pasch 4. Justin Mart. Apol. 2. Iraen l. 4. c. 4. Theoph. Antioch 6. Chrys Hom. 83. in Matth. 7. Aug. Ep. ad Janua 2. Optat. That the Bread is made the Body of Jesus Christ 2. That of Bread and Wine are made the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 3. That the Bread and Wine are changed converted and transelemented into the Body and Blood and in to the Substance of the Body of Jesus Christ 4. That they are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ after the consecration 5. That we are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 6. That we touch and eat the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ himself 7. That the Body of Jesus Christ enters into the mouth of Believers 8. That his Body and Blood dwells upon our Altars That it is the proper Body of Jesus Christ That we receive truly his precious Body That it is truely the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ This Controversie consists to know if these words and innumerable others like them which are found in the Books of these holy Doctors ought to be taken in the proper and literal sence as the Catholicks maintain or if they are to be understood in a figurative and metaphorical sence as the Ministers pretend Now this Question is decided by the Agreement of all Christian Societies in the Article of the Real Presence since the Apostles it being they could not believe that Doctrine unless they had taken these expressions in a proper and literal sence I know that Aubertin strives to elude all these passages of the Fathers which the Catholicks make use of to prove their Doctrine by proposing other passages which seem like to them and which both in Scripture and in Fathers are taken in a metaphorical sence And I must avow that if in this point he shews no great exactness of Judgment at least he lets us see he is a man that has read very much for that collection he makes of Expressions seeming like to those he would explain could not have been done without a great deal of labour And I may say
THE FAITH OF THE CATHOLICK CHVRCH Concerning the EUCHARIST Invincibly proved by the Argument used against the Protestants in the Books of the Faith of the Perpetuity written by Mr. Arnaud A Translation from the French. Printed at Holy-Rood House 1687. Errours to be Corrected Page 40. line 18. I know not p. 50. l. last r. 〈◊〉 more easily p. 89. l. 1. r. came p. 214. l. 6. r. put out a p. 225. l. 23. r. for those P. 262. l. 3. after day r. l. 〈◊〉 after procedurer also l. 9. after not r. also l. 18. in steaâ—â— of that it was not r. was it not ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PROTESTANTS THe sole Title of this little Book is capable to make you sufficiently understand that the attentive reading of it may be of great importance to you It treats of a Mystery on the account of which you have been made conceive the greatest aversion from the Catholick Church And which you have been made to look upon as the greatest obstacle of your Reconcilement to it There is no Person of good sence among you who will not avow That if your Religion be false in this point you ought to forsake it and that you ought to give no credit to your Ministers if it be found that in the matter of the Sacrament they have made you mistake Errour for Truth You have no assurance that you are not thus misled for they dare not say that their Church is Infallible Do not then neglect so easie means to examine whether it be so or not and refuse not a few hours application to the most important Affair you can have in the World which is that of your Salvation Your Ministers ought not to hinder you from this application For if you find nothing solid in what is here proposed to you you will be inclined to adhere more closely to them And if on the conttary the Truth appear to you with such evidence as obliges you to embrace it What other thing should hinder it from having the same effect on them but a selfish stubbornness which should not be a motive to you to follow them but rather to forsake them Perhaps they will tell you there is nothing here proposed to you of new nothing but the same Argument which Mr. Claud has answered and consequently that it 's not worth your taking notice of it But the contrary is true For if here were offered to you a new Proof of any Article of our Faith which you had not heard discoursed of before you would not miss to say That you ought to expect what your Ministers could answer to it But this you cannot say here for never was there a Debate so agitate on either part as this whereof you have here the result That little Book of the Perpetuity where it was supposed that the Eastern Societies believes what we believe concerning the Eucharist while it was yet a Manuscript was impugned by a Manuscript-Answer of Mr. Claud wherein he maintained that the said Supposition was false and that excepting the Roman Church Transubstantiation and the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist were two things unknown to the whole World and that neither the Greeks nor the Armenians nor the Russians nor the Jacobites nor the Ethiopians nor generally any Christian save only those who are subject to the Pope believes any thing of these two Articles After this the little Perpetuity was printed with a Refutation of the Answer made by Mr. Claud In which Refutation were brought most clear Testimonies of what he had so boldly denied concerning the Faith of the Christians of the East But as it was judged the contrary could not be maintained so that point was not insisted on at length Mr. Claud sets out a great Volume against that little Book And not yielding to the Proofs that were brought against his Assertion he employ'd all what he had of Wit and Dexterity to support what he had asserted viz. That Transubstantion and the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist were believed in no place of the World except in the Roman Church To this Book of Mr. Claud's was opposed the first of the three great Volumes of the Perpetuity wherein the truth of the matter of fact impugned by him was confirmed with such force with Proofs so convincing with Testimonies so irrefragable and so numerous that no Man in the World would believe that one could yet pertinaciously maintain a thing so manifestly false But we were mistaken in this Mr. Claud did not yet give over but employed all kinds of artifices and subtilties to put out the eyes of those of his Party that they might not see the Faith of the Roman Church concerning the Eucharist in the most formal and express Testimonies of all the Oriental Societies But this Opiniatorness served only to make the truth shine forth more brightly for it was the cause of procuring a great many more new Testimonies and whole Books published by the Greeks in certain circumstances that 't is impossible but the most unreasonable must succumb if so be they be oblig'd to reflect seriously on them This was made appear in the general Answer to that Book of Mr. Clauds and in the last Book of the Third Volume of the Perpetuity And Father Paris Canon-Regular of the Congregation of St. Genevieve a most learned Divine has made two Books on the same subject which joyned with those I have mentioned have made this matter of fact evident in the highest degree This is the fruit of that long Dispute which has verified that Saying of St. Augustin De Civit. Dei lib. 16. cap. 12 That God permits several points of the Catholick Doctrine to be impugned by Hereticks with many artifices to the end that the Catholicks being obliged to defend them they may be examined more exactly illustrated more clearly and maintained more vigorously Mr. Claud has written nothing since that time on this matter his last Answer is in the year 1670. And there are five Volumes which he has left unanswered The last of these five Volumes is in the year 1675. The two last Volumes of the Perpetuity the general Answer which is in 1671 and the two Books of Father Paris And yet Gentlemen it is very strange that notwithstanding of this silence of Mr. Claud so publickly notorious it is given out amongst you that he has written last and that his Books are not answered For I know this has been said by several persons and particularly by Madamoiselle de Suze to a Priest a Friend of min. I have set down to you the progress of this famous Debate to let you see you have no reason to say in this occasion we are expecting till our Ministers shall have taught us what is to be answered to this Argument They have done all you could expect from them on this subject they are exhausted They have spoken they have answered they have replied they have if I can use the word duplied So