to speak of it with respect and for Father ' Bauny's Lectures concerning Theft whereby John ' d Alba was induc'd to commit it against your selves are they so sacred that you have a priviledge to treat those as Reprobates that laugh at them What Fathers must the imaginations of your Authors be receiv'd for such truths as wherein our Faith is concern'd and people cannot make sport with the passages of Escobar and the fantastick and dis-christian-like decisions of your other Authors but they must be charg'd with scoffing at Religion Is it possible you should presume to repeat so often a thing so irrationall Or are you not afraid when you blame me for censuring your extravagancies to give me fresh occasion to laugh at the reproch and to return it upon your own heads by shewing that I have not taken occasion to laugh at any thing but what is ridiculous in your books and consequently that when I make sport with your Morality I am so far from jesting with holy things as the doctrine of your Casuists is different from the holy precepts of the Gospel There is certainly Fathers a vast difference between laughing at Religion and laughing at those that profane it by their extravagant opinions It were impiety to want a respect for the truthes which the spirit of God hath reveal'd but it were no lesse impiety to want a contempt for the falsities which the spirit of man opposes thereto For Fathers since you force me to engage in this discourse I beseech you consider that aâ— Christian verities require love and respect so the errours contrary thereto deserve onely scorn and detestation The reason whereof is that as there are two things in the Truths of Religion a divine beauty that renders them amiable and inviting and a sacred Majesty which makes them dreadfull and venerable so are there likewise two things in Errours impiety rendring them horrid and impertinence making them ridiculous And therefore as the Saints have ever for truth these two sentiments of love and fear and that their wisdome is comprehended between Feare the beginning and Love the end of it so have they for errour these two sentiments of detestation and contempt and their zeal is equally taken up to oppose by force the malice of the impious and with scoffing to confute their folly and extravagance Flatter not your selves therefore Fathers with any hope to make the world believe that it is a thing unbeseeming a Christian to treat errours with scorne since it is an easie matter to satisfy those that know not so much that this kind of proceeding is very justifiable that it is frequent among the Fathers of the Church and is authorised by the Scripture and the examples of the greatest Saints nay by God himself For do we not find that God at the same time both hates and scornes sinners nay so far that even at the houre of their death a time when their condition is most sad and deplorable the divine wisdome joynes laughter and scorne to that vengeance and indignation which shall turn them over into eternall punishment I will also laugh at your destruction and mock when your feare cometh And the Saints actuated by the same spirit shall do the like since that according to David when they see the destruction of the wicked they shall feare and laugh at it the same time Videbunt justi timebunt super â—um ridebunt And Job hath the liâ—e expression the righteous man shall laugh them to scorn But it is a thing very remarkable upon this occasion that in the first words which God said to man after his fall we find a scoffing discourse and according to the Fathers a bitter Irony For when Adam had broken the commandement out of the hope which the Devil had put him into of being made like unto God it is apparent out of the Scripture that God for his punishment made him subject to death and yet after he had brought him into that condition as the reward of his sinne he yet laugh'd at him in that posture with these scoffing expressions Behold man is become like one of us Which is a sharpe and biting Irony wherewith God reprov'd him most bitterly according to Saint Chrysostome aâ—d his interpreters Adam sayes Rupertus deserv'd to be scoff'd at by that Irony and this ironicall expression made him more fully sensible of his indiscretion then a serious one could have done And Hugo de Saint Victor having affirmed the same thing addes that this irony was a just reward for his sottish credulity and that this kind of raillery is an act of justice when he on whom it is bestowed hath deserv'd it You see then Fathers that derision is sometimes the fittest way to reduce men out of their extravagances and that it is at that time an action of justice because as Jeremy saith the actions of those who go astray are worthy to be laugh'd at by reason of th ir vanity Vana sunt risu digna And it is so far from impiety to deride them that it is an argument of divine wisdome according to Saint Augustine The wise laugh at the indiscreet because they are wise not according to their own wisdome but that divine wisdome which shall laugh at the death of the wicked In like manner the Prophets filled with the spirit of God have made use of these derisions as we see in the examples of Daniel and Eliah In a word the very discourses of JESUS CHRIST himself are not without example thereof And it is the observation of Saint Augustine that when he would humble Nicodemus who thought himself very well skill'd in the law seeing him much lifted up with pride by his quality of Doctor among the Jewes he exercises and brings down his presumption by the depth of his demands and reduc'd him to an incapacity of answering What said he to him are you a Master in Israel and ignorant of these things Which is as much as if â—e had said Arrogant Prince acknowledge that you know nothing And Saint Chrysostom and Saint Cyril affirme upon that passage that he deserved to be so derided You see then Fathers that if it should happen at this day that such as pretend to be masters among the Christians as Nicodemus and the Pharisees were among the Jewes be ignorant of the principles of Religion and maintaine for instance that a man may be saved without ever loving God in all his life he did but follow the example of Iesus Christ that should laugh at their ignorance and their vanity I doubt not Fathers but these sacred examples are sufficient to convince you that it is not a proceeding contrary to that of the Saints to laugh at the errours and extravagances of men otherwise you must quarrell with that of the greatest Doctors of the Church who have practis'd it And among these may be numbred S. Hierom in his letters and in his writings against Jovinian Vigilantius and the Pelagians Tertullian
Religious men treated after this rate they are not more troubled that Religious men should treat Truth as they have done And if they are incensed not onely against the LETTERS but also against the MAXIMES cited therein I shall acknowledge that their resentment may haply proceed from some zeale but not well illuminated and then the passage here produc'd will sufficiently enlighten them But if their violence be against the reprehensions and not against the things reprehended your Reverences must pardon me if I cannot avoid telling them that they are most grosly abused and that their zeal is very blind 'T is certainly a strange zeal that is incensed against those that discover publick enormities and not against those that commit them What new kind of charity is this that 's offended to see manifest errours baffled meerly by bringing them on the stage and is not mov'd to see Morality turn'd upside down by those errours If these persons were in danger to be assassinated would they be offended with any one that should acquaint them with the ambush laid for them and instead of turning out of their way to avoid it would sit down and bemone the want of charity in those that discovered the wicked design of those assassins Are they angry when they are forbidden to eat such a meat because it is poysoned or to go into a City when the plague is in it Whence comes it then that they find this want of charity when a man discovers Maximes prejudicial to Religion on the contrary think it a great defect of charity not to discover things prejudicial to their health and lives but that the tenderness they have for their lives makes them take kindly whatever contributes to the preservation thereof and the indifference they have for Truth makes them not onely avoid having any part in her vindication but also not a little troubled when they see others endeavouring the destruction of Falshood Let them then as in the sight of God consider how shameful and pernicious the Morality which your Casuists scatter through all parts is to the Church how scandalous and illimitable the liberty you introduce into Manners is with what a violent and obstinate confidence you maintain them And if they think it not time to arme against such disorders their blindness is as much to be deplor'd as yours since that both you and they have equal cause to fear this saying of Saint Augustine upon that of JESUS CHRIST in the Gospel Wo unto the blind that lead wo unto the blind that are led vae caecis ducentibus vae caecis sequentibus But to the end you may have no occasion to put these impressions into others nor to take them your selves I will acquaint you Fathers and I blush that you engage me to acquaint you with what I should have learn'd from you with the marks which the Fathers of the Church have left us whereby to discern whether reprehensions proceed from a spirit of piety and charity or from a spirit of impiety and exasperation The first of these rules iâ— that the spirit of piety enclines a man to speak alwayes with truth and sincerity whereas envy and exasperation spare neither lyes nor calumnies splendentia vehementia sed rebus veris sayes Saint Augustine Whoever makes use of lying acts by the spirit of Satan There 's no direction of the intention can rectifie calumny and were it to convert the whole earth it were not lawful to traduce the innocent because we must not commit the least evil to promote the greatest good and that the truth of God doth not stand in need of our lying as the Scripture saith It is the duty of the champions of Truth saith Saint Hilary not to advance any thing but what is true Accordingly Fathers I may say as in the presence of God that there is nothing I detest more then to do Truth the least violence imaginable and that I have ever been extremely careful not onely not to falsifie that were horrid but even not to alter or distract in the least the sense of any passage So that if I durst presume upon this occasion to make use of the words of the same Saint Hilary I might safely say with him If we advance things that are untrue let our discourses be reputed infamous but if we plainly shew that what we do produce is publick and manifest it is no breach of moderation and Apostolical Liberty to reprove them But Fathers it is not enough not to produce any but true things but we must also not produce all that are such because there ought to be alledged onely those things that are requisite to discover and not those which can onely hurt without any advantage And so as the first rule is to speak with tâ—uth the second is to speak with discretion Wicked men saith Saint Augustine persecuting the good are hurried away with the blind passion that animates them whereas the good prosecute the wicked with a prudent discretion as Chirurgions consider where they cut whereas murderers care not where they strike You know Fathers that of the Maximes of your Authors I have not cited those that might have troubled you most though I might have done it without any breach of discretion as well as a many learned Catholicks that have done it heretofore All those who have read your Authors know as well as your selves how sparing I have been to you as to that besides that I have not said ought relating to any one in particular and indeed should be much troubled had I discovered any secret and personal miscarriage what pregnant proof soever I might have of it For I know it to be the character of envy and animosity and that a man should never do it unless there be some extraordinary necessity for it as to the benefit of the Church It is therefore evident that I have have not any wayes been wanting as to modesty in what I have been forc'd to say concerning the Maximes of your Morality and that there is much more reason you should acknowledge my reservedness then complain of my indiscretion The third rule Fathers is that when a man is oblig'd to fall into something of satyre the spirit of piety inclines him to direct his wit against errours not against holy things whereas the spirit of Sycophancy impiety and heresie makes sport with what is most sacred I have already vindicated my self as to this point And certainly a man speaking onely of the opinions I have cited out of your Authors is far enough from being subject to that vice In a word to shorten these rules I shall onely trouble you with this one more which is t principle end of all the rest And that is that the spirit of Charity inclines a man to make hearty wishes for their salvation against whom he speakes and when he directs his reproches to men at the same time to addresse his prayers to God A man should alwayes with Saint
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
to see whether it were so have found it and all are satisfied This now is an easie and ready way to resolve questions of fact Whence comes it then Father that you do not make use of it you said in your Cavilli That the five Propositions are in Jansenius word for word all in express termes totidem verbis You were told they were not What then was to be done but either to cite the page if you had really found them there or to confess you were mistaken But you do neither and waving that and finding that all the passages of Jansenius alledg'd by you sometimes onely to daze the world are not the individual and singular condemâ—ed Propositions which you were engag d to shew in his book you present us with Constitutions which declare that they are taken out of them without citing the place I am not ignorant Father of the respect that Christians owe the holy See and your Adversaries have given sufficient testimony that they are resolved ever to own it but do not you imagine it shall argue the least defect thereof to represent to the Pope with all submission as Children ought to their Father and Members to their Head that it is not impossible he might be surpris'd in that matter of fact That he hath not caus'd it to be examin'd since his coming to the Chaire and that his Predecessor Innocent X. had onely caus'd it to be examin'd whether the propositions were heretical not whether they were Iansenius's which gave the Commissarie of the H. Office one of the chiefest Examiners occasion to say That they could not be censured in the sense of any Author Non sunt qualificabiles in sensu proferentis because they had been presented to them to be examined in themselves and without any consideration who the Author of it might be in abstracto ut praescindunt ab omni proferente as it may be seen in their suffrages newly printed That above â—0 Doctors and a very great number of other able and godly persons have read over the book very exactly yet found them not there but met with some that were contrarie thereto That those who had made those false representations to the Pope might very well be thought to abuse the trust he reposed in them it being their main concernment as interessed persons to discredit that Author who had discovered in Molina above 50. errours That what makes all this the more credible is that they hold this Maxime one of the most authentick of all their Theologie viz. that they may without crime calumniate those by whom they think they are unjustly molested and consequently their testimony being suspicious and that of the others so considerable there is some ground to intreat his Holiness with all possible humilitie to order this matter of fact to be examin'd in the presence of Doctors of both sides so to determine it by a solemn and regular decision Let able and competent judges be assembled saith Saint Basil upon such another occasion Ep. 75. before whom let every one be free Let my writings be examined Let them see whether there be any errours contrary to faith Let both the Objections and the Answers be read that the judgement may be formall and according to the merits of the cause and not a defamation without any examen Think not Father to make those be accounted refractory toward the holy See that shall take this course The Popes are far from treating Christians with that Tyranny which some would exercise under their names The Church saith S. Gregory the Pope upon Job lib. 8. c. 1. which hath been brought up in the School of Humility does not command with authority but perswades by reason what she would teach her children whom she thinks ensnared into some errour Recta quae erantibus dicit non quasi ex authoritate praecipit sed ex ratione persuadet And they are so far from thinking it any way dishonourable to retract a judgement wherein they had been surprised that they as it were triumph in the contrary as S. Bernard witnesseth Ep. 180. The Apostolick See saith he hath this for which it is much to be celebrated that iâ— stands not upon punctilio's of honour but is easily prevailed with to revoke what had been procured from it by surprise it is indeed but just that no body should thrive by injustice and that especially before the holy See See here Father the true sentiments ought to be suggested to Popes since that all Divines do unanimously hold they may be surprised the transcendent quality they are of being as to that so far from securing them that on the contrary it many times makes them the more subject thereto by reason of the infinite businesse whereby they are distracted And this is acknowledged by the same S. Gregory to some persons who wondred at another Pope that was over-reached Why do you wonder saies he l. 1. Dial. That we are deceiv d being but men Have you not observed that David that King who had the spirit of prophesy having credited the false suggestions of Zâ—ba gave an unjust judgement against the son of Jonathan who therefore will think iâ— strange that impostors should surprise us sometimes us I say who are not prophets We are orewhelmed with affaires and our spirits being diverted by so many things are the lesse attentive to any thing in particular and so may be the more easily mistaken in some one thing I am perswaded Father that the Popes know better then you whether they may be surprised or no. They acknowledge themselves that Popes and the greatest Kings are more subject to be over-reached then persons whose affaires are of lesse consequence We must take their words And it is no hard matter to imagine by what meanes it comes to passe that they are so surprised S. Bernard makes a discription of it in a Letter he writ to Innocent II. in this manner It is not a thing strange and to be wondred at that the spirit of man may deceive and be deceived There are some Religious men come to you with a spirit of lying and illusion They have spoken to you against a Bishop whom they hate though he be a man of an exemplary life These persons bite like Dogs and would turn good into evil In the mean time holy Father you are exasperated against your Son Why have you given his adversaries occasion to rejoyce Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God I hope that when you have understood the truth whatever hath been built upon a false report will vanish into aire I earnestly beseech the spirit of truth to give you grace to separate light from darknesse and to reprove the evil that you may encourage the good You see then Father that the eminent degree wherein Popes are exempts them not from surprise and that he endeavours to make their surprises seem the more dangerous and of greater consequence That is represented
in his Apologetick against the simplicity of Idolaters Saint Augustine against the Religious men of Africk whom he calls the Hairy men Saint Irenaeus against the Gnosticks Saint Bernard and other Fathers of the Church who having been imitators of the Apostles are to be imitated by the faithfull in all times since that they are propos'd let men say what they will as a true modell for the Christians even of these dayes And this made me the more confident I could not do amisse while I followed them Which since I have sufficiently shewn that I have done I have no more to say to this point but onely those excellent words of Tertullian which give an account of all my procedure What I have done is but as it were a triall of skill before a set combat I have rather shewn you the wounds might be given you then give you any If there are some passages at which a man cannot well forbear laughing it must be attributed to the subject treated of inclining thereto There are a many things which deserve to be thus laughed at and made sport with lest we might be thought to attribute any weight thereto by opposing them seriously There 's nothing more suitable to Vanity then Derision and it is a priviledge proper to Truth to laugh because she is cheerfull and to scorne her enemies because she is confident of Victory T is true great care must be taken that the raillery be not flat and unworthy of Truth But keeping close to that whâ—n a man can with prudence make use thereof it is but his duty to do it What think you Fathers is not this passage very pertinent to our subject What I have done is onely a tryall of skill before a combat I have been all this while onely in jest and have rather shewn you the wounds you might receive then given you any I have simply laid down your passages without making any reflection thereupon if there hath happened any occasion of laughing it is because the subject was inclinable theretâ— For what is more likely to occasion laughter then to see a thing so grave as CHRISTIAN MORALITY fraught with such fantastick imaginations as yours are For if when mens expectations were so high concerning these maximes that it was said that JESUS CHRIST himself had revealed them to the Fathers of the Society one finds there that a Priest who had received money to say a masse may take more from others by transferring to them all the part and interest he had in the Sacrificâ— That a Religious man is not excommunicable for quitting his habit to go and dance steale or repaire incognito to debauch'd places and that a man satisfies the precept of hearing masse by hearing four parts of a Masse at the same time from severall priests when I say a man meets with these decisions and others of the same mettall it is impossible but that such an elusion of the expectation must needs cause laughter for nothing more inclines thereto then an incredible disproportion between what a man lookes for and what he finds And indeed how could a man otherwise treat of the greatest part of these matters since that according to Tertullian to speak seriously of them were to countenance them What must we bring in Scripture and Tradition to shew that for a man to run his enemy through behind his back or to do it in an ambush is to kill him treacherously and that to buy a Benefice is to give mony as the motive of the resignation thereof There are therefore some things fit to be contemn'd and deserve onely to be laughed at and made sport with In a word what this ancient Author sayes that nothing is more suitable to Vanity then Derision and indeed the whole passage comes so suitably and with so much conviction to our purpose that it is no longer to be questioned whether errours may be laugh'd at without running into any indecorum Nay Fathers I shall affirme they may be laughed at without any breach of charity though that be one of the things you most reproch me with in your writings For charity does sometimes oblige us to laugh at the errours of men the rather to encline them to laugh thereat themselves and to shun them according to the words of Saint Augustine Haec tu misericorditer irride ut eis ridenda fugienda commendes The same charity does also many times oblige us to give them a repulse with indignation according to this saying of Gregory Nazianzen The spirit of mildness and charity hath its angry sallios and emotions In a word as Saint Augustine saith Who dares affirms that truth ought to remain weaponless to deal with falshood and that it is lawful for the enemies of Religion to frighten the faithful with high words and to divert them by pleasant passages but that the Catholicks should not write but with a certain coldness of style such as might lay the Readers asleep Is it not sufficiently apparent hence that according to this procedure we should suffer the most extravagant and most pernicious errours to be brought into the Church when it shall not be lawful to slight and abuse them for fear of being charg'd with running into an indecorum nor yet to confute them with violence for fear of being tax'd with want of charity What Fathers you shall be allowed to affirme that one may kill another to avoid an affront or a box o' th' ear and it shall not be lawfull publickly to refute a common errour of such consequence You are at liberty to hold that a Judge may with a safe conscience detaire what he had received for giving an unjust sentence and others shall not have the same to contradict you You shall print with the priviledge and approbation of your Doctors that a man may be saved without ever loving God and would muzzle their mouthes who would defend that verity of our Faith by telling them that they are guilty of a breach of fraternal charity for opposing you and Christian moderation for laughing at your Maximes I fear me Fathers there are those in the world whom you could haply induce to believe such a thing If there be any so perswaded and that think I might commit a breach of the charity I owe you by discrediting your Morality I wish they had with attention examin'd whence that sentiment took its first rise in them For though they imagine it proceeds from their zeal which could not without scandal see their neighbour accused yet I would entreat them to consider that it is not impossible it might come otherwise nay that it is probable it proceeds from that secret and many times even to our selves unknown disgust which the unhappy leaven within us never failes to stir up against those that endeavour the reformation of manners And to give them a rule whereby they may discover the true principle thereof I would ask them whether at the same time that it pitties them to see
the ninth of your impostures nor indeed do they deserve any other then a cuâ—sory refutation T is ten or twelve years since that you have had this maxime of Father Bauny's cast in your dish That it is lawfull directly PRIMO ET PER SE to seek out the next occasion of sinning for the spirituall or temporall good of our selves or our Nâ—ighbour tr 49.14 Whereof he layes down this instance That it is lawfull for any one to go into places of publick prostitution there to convert sinfull women though it be probable they will rather commit sinne there as having before found by experience that th y are wont to be insnared by the insinuations of those women What answer did your Father Caussin make to this in the yeare 1644. in his Apologie for the Society of Jesus page 128. See saith he but the place in Father Bauny read the page the marginall notes what goes before what comes after nay read the whole book you will not find the least track of this Sentence which is such as could not fall but into the Soul of a man that is far from having friendship with his Conscience and seems such as could not be suggâ—sted into him but by some instrument of the devil And your Father Pintereau in the same manner of expression 1 part p. 24. sayes He must needs be at a losse of all Conscience that should teach so detâ—stable a doctrine but he must withall be worse then a Devil that should attribute it to Father Bauny Reader there is not the least mark or track of any such thing in his book Who would not believe that people speaking after this rate had reason to complaine and that some body had in effect imposed upon Father Bauny Have you affirmed any thing against me in more expressed termes And how durst a man imagine that a passage is in terminis in the very place where it is cited when there is not the least mark or track of it in all the book This Fathers is certainly a course to gain credit till you are answered but it is also the onely way never to be credited after you are once answered For it is so apparent that you lyed at that time that at this day you make no difficulty to acknowledge in your Answers that this maxime is in Father Bauny in the very place where it is cited and the miracle is that where it was detestable twelve years since it is now grown so innocent that in your ninth Imposture p. 10. you charge me with ignorance and malice for quarrelling with Father Bauny upon an opinion which hath not been refuted in the Schooles What an advantage is it Fathers to have to do with people who can indifferently say pro and con I shall need onely your selves to confound you for I have but two things to make appeare One is that this maxime is a pernicious one the other that it is Father Bauny's and I will prove both by your own confession In the yeare 1644. You acknowledged it to be detestable and in 1656. you confesse it to be Father Bauny's Though this double acknowledgement be enough for my justification yet doth it do something beyond it it discovers the spirit of your Politicks For tell me I beseech you what end you propose to your selves in your Writings Is it to deliver your selves with sincerity No Fathers it cannot since your Answers destroy one another Is it to comply with the truth in point of faith No more since you authorise a maxime that by your own acknowledgement is detestable But we are to consider that when you affirmed this maxime to be destestable you with the same breath denyed it to be Father Baunys and so he was innocent and when you acknowledged it to be his you withall maintain it to be good and consequently he is innocent still So that the innocence of that Father being the onely thing that is common to both your Answers it is also cleare that it is the onely thing you drive at therein and that all your businesse is to vindicate your own Fatherâ— by affirmng of the same maxime that it is in your Bookes and that it is not that it is good and that it is bad not according to truth which never changes but according to your interest which changes every minute What could I not say to you upon this advantage for you see it is very demonstrative And yet this is but your ordinary course But to avoid abundance of examples I think you will give me an acquittance that you are satisfyed if I adde but one more to the former summe You have at severall times been reproched with that other proposition of the same Father Bauny tr 4. q. 22. p. 100. A Priest ought not to deny those absolution who remains in habituall crimes contrary to the Lawes of God Nature and the Church though they discover not the least hope of amendment etsi emendationis futurae spes nulla appareat Now I would I have you tell me Fathers whether in your opinion hath best answered it your Father Printereau or your Father Brisacier who vindicate Father Bauny after those two different manners one by condemning the proposition but withall not acknowledging it to be his the other by granting it to be Father Bauny's but at the same time justifying it Heare them discourse Father Pintereau pag. 18. sayes thus What may be called breaking the reines of all modesty and to exceed all impudence if not to charge Father Bauny with so damnable a doctrine as a thing of all sides acknowledged Judge hence Reader of the unworthinesse of this Calumny and see what kind of people the Jesuits have to deale with and if the author of so black a suggestion ought not to be henceforth accounted the Interpreter of the Father of Lies Now see what your Father Brisacier sayes to it 4. p. pag. 21. But addes he to justify Father Bauny you that quarrell at this do hâ—ply expect when a Penitent castâ— himself at your feet till his Angel-Guardian should engage all the title he hath to heaven for his security Stâ—y till God sweare by his head that David lyed himself when by the inspiration of the holy Ghost he said that All men are lyars deceitfull and fraile and that the present Penitent is not a greater liar more fraile more fickle and more a sinner then all others and to you will not apply the bloud of Jesus Christ to any at all What think you Fathers of their impious and Atheistical expressions That if it be but requisite to stay till there were some hopes of amendment in sinners ere they should be absolv'd it is as much as if there were a necessity of staying till God the Father should swear by his head that they should fall into the same sins no more How Fathers is there no difference between Hope and Certainty How injurious is it to the grace of Jesus Christ to affirm that
by S. Bernard to Pope Eugenius de consid lib. 2. c. ult There is yet another generall default which I have not met with any of the great ones of the world that doth avoid That is holy Father over-easinesse of belief the dame of so many disorders For thence do violent persecutions proceed against the innocent the prejudiced are unjust against the absent and those that are inclined to choler grow terrible for things of no consideration pro nihilo This holy Father is an universall evil from which if you are free I shall affirme that you onely have that advantage over your brethren This methinkes Father must needs in some measure convince you that Popes are subject to be surprised But that you may take a full and perfect view of it I shall onely put you in mind of the examples which you alledge in your book of Popes and Emperours that have really been surprised by Hereticks For you say that Apollinaris surprised Pope Damasus as Celestius had done Zozimus You say further that one named Athanasius circumvented the Emperour Heraclius and drew him in to persecute the Catholicks And lastly that Sergius obtained from Honorius that Decree which was afterwards burnt in the sixth Council by his colloguing and insinuations with that Pope as you say It is therefore evident from your self Father that those who make such advantage of their interest with Kings and Popes do sometimes craftily engage them to persecute those who defend the true faith while they think they persecute heresies And thence it comes that the Popes who have nothing in so much horrour as these surprises have of a Letter of Alexander III. made an ecclesiasticall Law inserted into the Canonicall to permit the suspension of the execution of their Bulls and Decrees when it is thought they have been mis-informed If it happen sometimes sayes the Pope to the Archbishop of Ravenna that we send to your Fraternity such Decrees as you are not satisfied with trouble not your self at it For you may either with reverence put them in execution or give us an account why you think they ought not and we shall take it well at your hands that you execute not any decree which might have been procured from us either by surprise or artifice Thus do those Popes proceed who endeavour nothing so much as to cleare up the differences among Christians and not to comply with their passions who endeavour their distraction They use no domination as S. Peter and S. Paul say after Jesus Christ but the spirit which guides all their proceedings is that of peace and truth Whence it comes that ordinarily they put into their Letters this clause which indeed is understood in all Si Ita est si preces veritate nitantur if the thing be as we have been informed if the matter of fact be true Whence it is evident that since the Popes give not force to their Bulls but so far as they are grounded upon truth in matter of fact the Bulls alone do not prove the matter of fact to be true but on the contrary even according to the Canonists themselves t is the truth in matter of fact that authenticates the Bulls Whence then are we to learn the truth in matter of fact From the eyes Father the legall judges thereof as reason is of things naturall and intelligible and faith of things supernaturall and revealed For since you oblige me to this discourse Father I must tell you that according to the opinions of two of the greatest Doctors of the Church S. Augustine and S. Thomas these three principles of our knowledge have every one their severall objects and with in that extent their certainty And whereas God thought fit to use the mediation of the sences to give Faith entrance Faith cometh by hearing yet so far is faith from derogating from the certainty of the senses that on the contrary 't were to destroy Faith to bring the faithfull report of the senses into question For which reason S. Thomas expressly observes that God would needs have the sensible accidents to subsist in the Eucharist to the end the senses which judge onely of accidents should not be deceived Vt sensus à deceptione reddantur immunes Conclude we hence then that what proposition soever be presented to our examination we must in the first place discover the nature of it to see which of the three principles it is referrible to If it relates to something supernaturall we are not to judge of it either by sense or reason but by the Scripture and the decisions of the Church If it concern a proposition not revealed and proportionable to naturall Reason she shall be the proper judge thereof And lastly if the dispute be about matter of fact we must submit to our senses to whom it naturally belongs to take cognizance thereof This rule is so generall that according to S. Augustine and S. Thomas when the Scripture it self presents us with some passage whereof the litterall sense is contrary to what the senses and Reason judge of it with certainty we must not endeavour to weaken the testimony of these to submit them to that apparent sense of the Scripture but we must interpret the Scripture and find out some other sense thereof reconcileable even with that sensible truth because the word of God being infallible even in matters of fact and the report of the senses and of reason acting within their limits being also certain these two truths must of necessity be reconciled and as the Scripture may be interpreted severall wayes and the report of the senses can be but one so must we in such cases take that for the true interpretation of Scripture which is most consonant to the faithfull report of the senses We are saith S. Thomas 1. p. q. 68. a. 1. to observe two things according to Saint Augustine one that the Scripture hath ever some true sense the other that whereas it may admit of diverse senses when a man meets with one that reason finds guilty of falshood he must not be so obstinate as to affirme that to be the naturall sense thereof but find out another not disconsonant to reason This he explaines by a passage out of Genesis where it is written that God created two great Lights the Sun and the Moon and the Stars also So that the Scripture seems to say that the Moon is greater then all the Stars But in regard that it is evident by unquestionable demonstration that this is false we ought not saies this Saint obstinately to maintain the literal sense but find out another conformable to that truth in matter of fact as to say that the word Great light signifies onely the greatness of the light of the Moon in respect of us and not the greatness of her body considered in it self Should we do otherwise we should derogate from the veneration due to the Scripture nay on the contrary it were to expose it to the contempt