Cum inter Dectores non conveniat quando peccet mortaliter qui non facit elecmosynam non facile condemnandi sunt divites qui non faclunt Sa verb. Elcemos n. 2. pag. 201. The Doctors being not agreed when we sin mortally in not doing alms we must not easily condemn the rich who do them not at all And a little after citing Tolet in the place before alledged with some other Casuists and reporting that Judgment he concludes thus 3 Extra extremam necessitatem eleemosynam sub mortali peccato non esse praeceptam dicunt Ibid. They say that unless in case of extream necessity alms is not commanded under mortal sin That is to say that unless we see some person that hath his Soul in a manner hanging on his lips or who is in evident danger of death it is no great sin for him that is able to assist him to abandon him This is to speak properly to discharge men from the obligation of giving alms these extream necessities never falling out in a manner and there being few persons who see any such in many years or not at all in their whole lives and when such an one by great accident is presented we are not obliged any farther to provide for them according to these Doctors if we have not wealth to spare and riches that are superfluous and there being hardly any person who believes he hath such or who indeed hath such so much doth Covetousness Luxury House-keeping rack men at this day and makes all men in a manner necessitous so the obligation of giving alms shall be abolished and there shall hardly be any person found who shall think himself obliged to assist his neighbour to what necessity soever he be reduced But the words of Tolet are considerable and discover also with advantage the solidity of this Doctrine 4 Istam teneo propter communem Doctorum sententiam nec audeo obligare sub mortall quos tot tanti Doctores excusant I am saith he of this opinion because it is the common judgment of the Doctors and I dare not engage him in mortal sin whom so many great Doctors excuse He calls the Casuists of these last times great Doctors and he dares not depart from their opinion though he avows after that they are themselves departed from that of the holy Fathers who were the Doctors and Masters of the Church before them which hath proposed them as such to all the faithful of latter Ages and by much stronger reason to Priests and Divines who ought to be the most perfect amongst the faithful For he acknowledges that although the Scholasticks discharge the rich from the obligation they have to give alms of that which they have superfluous the holy Fathers for all that and the common judgment of Antiquity obligeth them thereunto 5 Etsi Scholasticorum communis sententia eos excuser tamen Doctores Sancti eos damnant ita ut profecto sit sententia probabilis illos obligari sub praecepto Tolet. l. 8. c. 35. n. 3. pag. 1242. Though the common opinion of the School-men excuse them saith he yet the holy Doctors condemn them So that it is very probable that they are obliged thereunto by Precept He is not content to say in general that this is the Judgment of the holy Fathers but he cites many passages of S. Ambrose S. Jerom S. Austin S. Basil and of S. Chrysostom who place in the rank of those who rob or detain unjustly the goods of others all them who give not to the poor what remains of their wealth after they have provided for their just and true necessities You see saith he after he had named all these Fathers 6 Vides tot Sanctos damnare superflui retentionem multùm ergo timendum est Ibid. so many of the Saints who condemn them that do not their alms of what they have of superfluity There is therefore herein much cause to fear He might have added to the Authority of these Fathers that are the most illustrious and the most famous of the Church that of all the rest for they all agree in this Point so that there is not one found to say the contrary So that if there be one Point of Doctrine established on the ancient and universal Tradition of the Church this is as clearly as any other and if that which is established upon this Tradition ought to pass for indubitable amongst Catholick Divines and amongst all the Faithful as it hath always certainly been until this present we cannot call this Doctrine into doubt without wounding the Authority of the Church and the foundations of the Faith and to say it is probable as Tolet saith Profecto sententia probablis est is not of much â—atter effect than to say that it is false because this is to hold always for doubtful the ancient and universal Tradition of the Church and to give men liberty to decide Points of Divinity and to expound Scripture against the consent of the Fathers which is expresly forbidden by the Council of Trent Another that hath not read the Fathers might be excused by his ignorance But this excuse hath no place in Tolet who forsakes them after he had cited them and which is yet more unsupportable and more injurious to these great Saints he renounces their Judgment after he had acknowledged it to follow that of the new Divines of our times 1 Et nisi esset tam unanimis Scholasticorum sentâ—ntia qua possunt exculari modo aliquo tales homines absque dubio damnanda esset talis retentio Ibid. If the School-men saith he did not agree so unanimouslâ— as they do in this very Judgment by which we may in some sort excuse these persens who give not in alms what they have of superfluity we must without doubt have condemned this sparingness so as the holy Fathers condemn it as he saith himself Vides tot Sanctos damnare superflui retentionem He pretends then that the holy Fathers on one side condemn those who give not in alms what they have of superfluous and on the other hand the new Scholasticks excuse them we must hold to the Judgment of these later if we will believe this Jesuit and follow his Example But if it be lawful in this manner to oppose the new Divines to the ancient Tradition in this Article and in this opposition to prefer the Judgment of the Casuists before that of the holy Fathers instead of judging and correcting the Moderns by the Tradition of Antiquity it will be lawful to do the same thing in all other Points which concern Manners or Religion and so there shall be nothing fixed in the Doctrine of the Church and Antiquity shall be no more a mark of Truth and Faith but Novelty shall be more considerable though until this present it hath passed for a Vice and a mark of Errour But for all that he hath over-reached in saying that this new Opinion
Probabiliter ergo tam suscipiens quam conferens Ordinem ante ordinandi Confi mationem venialiter deliquit Ibid. that it is then probable that both he who confers and he who receives Orders before Confirmation sin only Venially This is sufficiently to despise the Sacrament of Confirmation not to vouchsafe to take the pains to receive it for preparation to holy Orders then when it may so easily be given by the same Bishop who confers the Orders But this it also a greater contempt of the order of the Church of the Authority of an Oecumenick Council and of all Ecclesiastick Tradition and Discipline not to fear at least to violate it by a voluntary withdrawing from and neglect of these so formal words of the Council of Trent Primâ Tonsurâ non initientur qui Sacramentum Confirmationis non susceperint As if these words did not contain an Ordinance but only a counsel and simple proposition Which is a very easie way to overthrow all the Decrees of Councils and the Church and to render them entirely unprofitable Here we must take notice of the spirit of these Divines and the licence which they take to play with Sacraments and Consciences They debase Confirmation as much as they can and carry themselves with visible passion to the diminishing of the vertue of this Sacrament which is the accomplishment of Baptism without which the grace of Baptism continues imperfect and Christians are not such but only imperfectly according to the Fathers and on the other hand we see them carry indifferently all the world to confession and the Communion with so much ardour and importunity that they make it the head point of their direction as the greater part of those who follow their conduct make it the principal part of their devotion Which thing is so much the more considerable for that if we pre-suppose even with them that there is no command which obliges us to receive Confirmation so also neither is there any that obliges us to confess ofther then once a year and this precept of Confession is not at all for Venial sins which notwithstanding are the matter of the Confessions which they reiterate and cause to be reiterated so often by devout persons and those who defire to live Christian-like and nevertheless if they knew any one who should divert Penitents from their Tribunals or who should only say to them that it was not necessary for them to confess so often when they have only Venial sins which may be blotted out by other ways they would doubtless condemn him and hold him more to blame then if he had committed some great crime and yet they make no scruple to turn away all the faithful indifferently from Confirmation by this reason only although a false one that there is no obligation nor necessity on them to receive it But if any will say that the custom of confessing and communicating frequently is received in the Church and those who make a special Profession of Piety ought to follow it and cannot neglect it without testifying that they contemn it with pride we must confess by this reason that we are much more obliged to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and we cannot neglect the opportunities thereof without discovering greater pride and contempt against this Sacrament since it is manifest that the order custom and use of receiving it is much more ancient more authorized and more generally and religiously observed in the Church than that of frequent Confession of venial sins this practice becoming common only of late times and that of Confirmation having been generally received and holily observed from the beginning of the Church and in all latter Ages so that there hath never been found any one Saint pious Person or Christian living Christian-like who hath dared to reject it or who hath withdrawn himself voluntarily from it until our times wherein the Jesuits have begun to introduce this new Doctrine and new Practice of Devotion But it is easie to see by the Spirit and ordinary Carriage of the Jesuits that that which carries them on to aggravate with so great care the obligation and necessity of Confession and of the Communion and on the contrary to diminish that of Confirmation to push on Christians indifferently to these two first Sacraments and to keep them at distance from the last is thi◠that they are not Bishops to confirm men as well as they are Priests to confess and communicate and that in recommending with so much importunity Confession and the Communion they make themselves necessary and in diverting the Faithful from Confirmation they advance the design which they have to make Bishops unuseful and to withdraw the people from their guidance that they may be their Masters therein and reign in the Church without any hindrance ARTICLE II. Of the Eucharist and Penance What sort of Dispositions the Jesuits demand for these two Sacraments and that they teach men to prophane them by Sacriledge AS the Jesuits incline all sorts of persons indifferently to confess and communicate it behoves them that they may bring them on thereunto to make the practice and use of these two Sacraments very easie We have already seen in the Chapter of Penance that they have so sweetned the yoke of Confession that to confess well there needs in a manner nothing but to know how to speak and declare ones sins though in many cases they give liberty also to conceal one part and though one do accuse himself in general without specifying any in particular they oblige him not absolutely to repeat his Confession And as for their Penitents who confess frequently they permit them almost any thing even to deceive them and lye in Confession without believing they commit any great fault provided it be only in a matter of venial sin that if they have committed mortal sins which they are ashamed to discover they may by the advice of these directors confess them to other Priests to preserve their reputation with their ordinary Confessor They will also make their Penance as easie as their Confession if they please For if they be not in a humour to perform it that they may give them neither trouble nor scruple they will impose it on them only by way of counsel or without prescribing them any thing in particular they are content to say unto them Impono tibi pro poenitentia quiequid hodie vel hac hebdomada boni feceris vel mali passus fueris I impose upon you for Penance whatsoever good you shall do or evil you shall suffer this day or this week If a person over-run with crimes address himself to them and be troubled to make known the bottom of his Conscience and to discover the corruption of his Heart by declaring his wicked inclinations and habits they will not press on him in this point no more then to tell them in particular the number of his wicked desires impurities and secret crimes which move in his
its matter and subject THE SECOND PART OF THE FIRST BOOK Of the eternal principles of Sin That the Jesuits nourish them that they may gratifie the passions of men and by consequence excite them to Sin HItherto we have shewn that the Jesuits nourish sin by nourishing men in passions in evil habits and in vices in Ignorance and in a false pretence of good intentions wherewith they commonly shelter themselves which are as it were the Fountains and the internal principles of Sin I must now make it appear that they favour no less the outward principles of the same sin which are 1. Humaine reason and authority which furnish arms and expedients to defend them 2. With customs which produce examples to support them 3. The next occasions which draw men to them cause them to fall into them and retain them in them We will treat of every one of these outward principles of sin apart as we have done of the inward CHAP. I. Of the maximes of reason and humane authority FAith is not less elevated above reason then reason is above sense and it is no less disorder to regulate the lives of Christians who ought to live by Faith by the maximes of humane reason and much less of reason corrupted as it now is by sin then to desire to judge spiritual things by sense This were to transform men into Beasts and to subject them to follow their senses in the regulation of their life and to treat Christians like Heathens to give them no other rule for their conversations and actions then the maximes of Philosophie and humane reason Yet this is it which the Jesuits have done and all those who read their Divinity and principally that which treats of manners will find therein no other principles in a manner but those of the lowest Philosophie and humane reason and that corrupted They hardly know what it is to cite Scripture or Councils and if they rehearse any passages of the Holy Fathers it is for the most part for form onely or to resute them rather then to use them for foundations or solid proofs of their opinions in relying on the authority of these great men who have advanced nothing of themselves in points of consequence which belong to Faith or manners which they had not taken from those who went before them in the Church and which came not originally from the Apostles and from Jesus Christ by the Tradition of the Church But the Jesuits far enough from this conduct make profession to invent and to speak things of themselves to follow novelty to make every thing probable to leave to the ingenious to choose in all opinions Whence it comes that making use sometimes of one sometimes of another they accommodate themselves easily to the humours of all the world and have wherewith to content all how contrary soever they can be But this also makes them fall many times into contradictions which are inevitable for them who have no other rule but their own proper sence These are the things which I shall handle in this Chapter to shew what a wound they have given unto Divinity and by consequence thereof to good manners in substituting reason into the place of faith and particular and novel opinions to that of antiquity and the tradition of the Fathers I shall make apparent 1. That their Divinity is novel and that they make profession to follow novelty 2. That every thing in it is probable and that they will have the liberty to follow all sorts of opinions 3 That their School is venal and wholly complaisant to the world and that they will have wherewith to content all sorts of persons in answering every one according to his desire 4. That it is full of contradictions I will treat every one of these points severally dividing this Chapter into so many Articles ARTICLE I. The Jesuits make profession to follow novel maximes and to contemn tradition and antiquity NOvelty hath always been odious in the Church if at any time it were objected unto the Saints they did always defend themselves from it as from a calumny and have had an extream care to advance nothing in the Church which they had not learned in the Church it self so far that they have believed that it was no lesse crime to introduce or receive new Doctrines then to make or adore Idols This is the judgement of Saint Augustin upon these words of the 80. Psalm Non erit tibi Deus recens where he saith that a Deus recens aut lapis aut phantasma est S. August in Ps 80. this new God is an Image of stone or a false imagination And a little after he unfoldeth his thoughts more at large in these words b Non dixit à te quasi simulachrum forinsecus adhibitum sed in te in corde tuo in imagine phantasmatis tui in deceptione â—rroris tui tecum portabis Deum tuum recentem manens vetustus Ibid. it is not said thou shalt have no new God without thee as if he would onely mark the outward and visible forms but he saith you shall not have a new God within your selves That is to say you shall not bear within your hearts in your imaginations in the illusion of your errour a new God contining your selves old and corrupt All novel opinions contrary to the Tradition and ancient belief of our Fathers are to speak properly nothing but phantasmes imaginations and errours these are as it were so many Idols which some would introduce into the Church which they would put into the place of Divine truth which at once is the rule of our life the object of our Faith and of our adoration And as those who make Idols those who sell and those who buy them to adore them are all equally Idolaters so in the same manner those who invent novel opinions those who teach them and those who follow them are all complices of the same fault and though these last may be lesse guilty and are more to be lamented then the others because they do sin with more ignorance and wilder themselves by following blind guides yet they all find themselves involved in the same misery and subject to the same condemnation pronounced by the Fathers and by the Scripture who condemn this sin and forbid it as a sort of Idolatry According to these principles of the Scripture and the language of the Prophet and of God himself we may say there are so many Idolaters as there are writers at this day amongst the Jesuits there being none of them in a manner who are not jealous of their own proper thoughts and who have not introduced into Divinity some novel opinion or who do not make profession to maintain and teach some which have been introduced by their Fraternity to the prejudice of the ancients who have been always received and followed in the Church until these last times Poza hath composed a great volumn which he hath intitled Elucidarium
Deiparae in which there will be found very little if all that be thrown out which he hath invented himself It had need to be copied out in a manner whole and entire to make appear all the ridiculous and extravagant things that it contains and all the excesses and errours into which he is fallen pursuing his own thoughts and imaginations having not taken so much care to given the Verigin true praises as to produce new and extraordinary which even in this do dishonour her and cannot be pleasing to her Because the praises which are to be given to Saints as well as the honour which we are to render unto God himself ought not to be founded on any thing but truth I will onely rehearse some of the most considerable places of this Author He maintains confidently that Saint Anne and Saint Joachim were sanctified from the wombs of their Mothers and that there is more reason to attribute to them this priviledge then to Jeremy and Saint John Baptist He confesses d Nullus est proâ—me in asseâ—tione hac sed neque contra me cum non sit hacterus disputata Peza in Eâ—ucidarioâ— 2. tr 8. c. 3. p. 547. that there are no persons that are for him or against him in this proposition because none have spoken of it before himself If there be no Author for him they are all against him and the silence of the Saints and all the Doctors that were before him is a manifest condemnation of his presumption and of his rashness in so declaring himself an innovator in an unheard of novelty in the Church in a matter of Religion Molina hath done the same thing where he hath gloried to have invented the middle knowledge in the matter of Grace and of Predestination with such insolence that he is not affraid to say that if it had been known in the first ages of the Church the heresie of the Pelagians possibly had never risen Maldonat who is one of the Commentators on Scripture whom they esteem doth often declare himself the Author of new sences which he gives the Word of God against the consent even of the Fathers many times in his books we meet such expressions as these e 〈◊〉 habere Antorem qui na sâ—ntret ..... â—ames qur quot ligisse me memini â—…oâ—…s sic explicâ—nt ego autem alâ—…er sentio Malden I would find some Author who was of this opinion or all Authors whom I remember to have read expound this text in this manner but I expound it otherwise Which is a manifest contempt of the Council of Trent which forbids to expound Scripture against the consent of the Fathers and an imitation of the language of Calvin and other Hereticks renouncing the tradition of the Holy Fathers and all the antiquity of the Church If Escobar could have condemned this confidence of his Fraternity he would have condemned them onely of venial sin f Novas opinio nes novas vestes exponere vâ—nialis tantùm culpâ— est Escob â—r 2. exam 2. n. 10. p. 291. Qaia ejusmodi inventione quis gestit aliorum laudem captare Ibid. To introduce saith he rovel opinions and new sorts of habits into the Church is onely a venial sin He hath cause to talk of new opinions as of new fashions of Garments for in the new Divinity of the Jesuits who hold all things probable there needs no more reason to quit an ancient opinion then to change the fashion of apparel and if there be any ill in it it is very small and that too must come from some peculiar circumstance as from vanity or ambition Though this censure of Escobar be very gentle Molina and Maldonat as more ancient and more considerable in the Society then he will not submit thereunto and Poza is so far from acknowledging that there is any ill in inventing new opinions that he had a design in his Book not to produce therein any other then the inventions and imaginations of his own mind and for this reason in the entrance and preface he makes an Apology for novelty in which he hath forgotten nothing that he believed might be of use to make it recommendable and to give it admission as well into the Church as into the World imploying for this purpose authority examples and reasons He rehearses many passages out of Seneca saying g Patet omaibus veritas noadum est occupata qui â—nâ—e nos fueruut non domini sed duces fuerunt multum ex illa futuris relictum est Seneca Ep. 33. Dum unusquisque mavult credere quam judicare numquam de vita judicatur semper creditur that truth is open exposed to all the World that none have yet taken possession thereof that they who were before us were our guides but we are not therefore their slaves that there remains yet enough for those who come after us that every one liking better to believe then judge they are always content to believe and never judge at all how they ought to live And a little after h Non alligo me ad aliquem ex Stoicis proceribus est mihi censendi jus Itaque aliquem jubebo sententiam dividere de beata vita I addict not my self to any one in particular of these great Stoical Philosophers I have a right to judge them and to give my advice upon them This is the cause why some times I follow the opinion of one and sometimes I change something in the judgement of another It is clear that these passages go to establish a right for reason above authority which had been tolerable in an Heathen who had no other guide but Reason and who speaks of questions and things which cannot be regulated but by Reason But a Christian a Monk a man who interposes himself to write in the Church in matters of Faith for the instruction and edification of the faithful to make use of the maximes and terms of a Pagan to ruine the obedience of Faith and the tradition which is one of its principal foundations staving off the Faithful from the submission which they owe to the Word of God and the authority of the Holy Fathers is a thing unsufferable in the Church of God this is almost to turn it Pagan and to give every one a liberty to opine in matters of Religion as the Heathen Philosophers did in matters of science and morality wherein they followed their senses onely and proper thoughts He alledges also some passages of Catholick Authors as that same of Tertullian i Dominus noster Christus veritatem se non consuetudinem nominavit Tertull. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that he was the truth and not the custom And this other of Lactantius k Sapicntiam sibi adimuut qui sine ullo judicio invent a majorum probant ab aliis pecudum more ducuntur Sed hoc cos fallit quod majorum nomine posite non putant fieri posse ut ipsi plus
sapiant quia minores vocantur Lactant. lib. 2 divin instit c. 8. These deprive themselves of wisdom who suffer themselves to be led by others like Beasts receiving without discerning all that which the ancients have invented That Which deceives them is the name of Ancestors Imagining that they cannot be Wiser then they because they come after them and because these are called neoteriques And in the same place l Deus dedit omnibus pro virili portionem sapientiae nec quia nos illi temporibus sapientia quoque antecesserunt Quia si omnibus aequaliter datur occupari ab antecedentibus non potest Ibid. God hath given wisdom to every man according to his capacity and those who precede us in time do not therefore exceed us in wisdom For being it is given indifferently to all men they who came first cannot by their possession eject others from it He considered not when he alledged these passages that what these Authors say is for reproof of those who suffer themselves to be carried with humane customs and traditions to the prejudice of manifest truth or who are too credulous and timorous in the inquiry after natural things which depend on reason and that they speak not of matters of Faith and Religion such as those are which he handles in his Book But if he have perceived this truth he abuses the authority of these great personages applying it against their sence and using it without reason to justifie a thing quite remote from their thoughts and contrary to their judgements and from that of all antiquity which were easie to be made appear if it were not a thing too remote from my subject He alledges also these words which he attributes to the Council of Constantinople m Beatus qui prosert verbum inauditum id est novum Syn. Const art 1. Happy is that man who produces an unheard word that is a now one Finally he cites those words of the holy Scripture n Omnis scriba doctus similis est patrifamilias qui profert de thesauro suo nova vettra Matth. 13. ver 53. every learned Doctor is like unto a Father of a Family who brings out of his treasure things new and old I passe by this last passage of the Gospel of Saint Matthew which he abuseth manifestly against the sence of the Son of God and that of all interpreters But I cannot passe over the remarkable falsity and visible corruption of the pretended words of the Council of Constantinople For the true words of the Council are Beatus qui profert verbum in auditum obedientium Blessed is he who utters a word into obedient ears From which he first cuts off the word obedientium obedient Afterwards he joins two words into one and instead of in auditum in to the hearing which were the Councils words he makes it say inauditum unheard In the third place adding corruption of sence unto falsification of words he saith that this word inauditum signifies new But there is no cause to marvel that the desire of novelty leads to falsity and consequently to errours and heresies Azor and after him Filliutius who doth nothing in effect but follow him speak also very advantagiously for novelty saying generally that the Apostolical Traditions are of humane right and that by consequence they may be changed o Ex quo officitur ut traditiones divinae ad â—us divinum specteat ac proinde sunt immutabiles Apostolicae vero ad jus humanum propterea Ecclesiae authoritate mut abiles Azor Instit mor. l. 8. c. 4. q. 4. pag. 743. Filliutius tom 2. tr 22. c. 1. n. 11. p. 65. Divine Traditions saith Azor appertain to Divine right and by consequence they are immutable but the Traditions of the Apostles are humane Laws and for that cause the Churoh may change them He expounds a little above what he means by Divine and Apostolical Traditions in these terms p Divinae traditiones sunt quaâ— ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli acceperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante vel gubernante vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt Apostolicae sunt qu as ipsi Apostoli tanquam Ecclesiae Praelati Doctores magistri recto es instituerunt Azor. Ibid. Divine Traditions are those which the Apostles have learned from the mouth of Jesus Christ or which the Holy Ghost hath dictated and they have written by his Command or by that of Jesus Christ The Traditions of the Apostles are those which the Apostles have instituted in the quality of Prelats Doctors Tutors and Governours of the Church In such manner that according to them the Traditions of the Apostles are no other then the Inventions of the Apostles which they ordained of themselves and of their own proper motion without having learned them of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit This is no more then his words clearly signifie and the division he makes suffers not any other sence to be given them since he opposes those Traditions which the Apostles have instituted of themselves quas ipsi Apostoli instituerunt to those which they have received from the mouth of Jesus Christ and from those which the Holy Ghost taught them and which he established by their Ministry quas ab ipsius Christi ore Apostoli receperunt vel quas Spiritu Sancto dictante jubente vel Christo Domino imperante promulgarunt He makes then of these two sorts of Traditions as it were two opposite members dividing Traditions into Divine and Humane or Apostolical He calls the first Divine because they draw their original from God and his Spirit who hath instituted them the Apostles having onely published them by his motion and order he affirms that the other are humane and of humane right ad jus humanum spectant because according to him they proceed from an humane spirit and not from Gods and that the Apostles who were men instituted them and are become their Fathers and Authors If it be true as he faith that the Apostles have made these rules in the Church whether concerning faith or manners and that they have not received them from Jesus Christ nor the Holy Ghost he hath reason to say that the constitutions and traditions which he terms Apostolical are onely of humane right because they take their original and their authority from the spirit of man and which by consequence may be changed by men and it may follow also from the same principle that they are subject unto errour the spirit of a man how holy soever it be may always deceive him when he is the Author and original of his thoughts and actions It will follow thence also that the Apostles have governed the Church as Princes and Politicians govern their estates and their common wealths by their wit and reason It would follow likewise that the Church is not governed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ being they who first governed it and
than his own Sect though it do not cease to appear unto him also credible But he answers in the second place that this opinion pleaseth him not at all and pretends that in this very case a Pagan is not bound at all to embrace the Faith a Caeterum hoc non placet it a generaliter dictum quippe dum Infidelis sibi persuasum habet suam sectam esse probabitem quamvis contraria sit probabilior tenetur utique in articulo mortis constitutus veram fidem quam probabiliorem judicat amplecti utpote in coarticulo constitutus in quo de extrema salute agitur ac proinde partem quam tutiorem probabiliorem judicat amplectitenetur At extra eum articulum non tenetur quod adhuc prudenter existimet se posse in sua secta perseverare Sanch. op mor. l. 2. c. 1. n. 6. p. 86. Because that when an Infidel is perswaded that his Sect is probable though the contrary which is the Christian Religion appear unto him more probable it is true that at the point of death when his Salvation is reduced to extremity and when by consequence he is obliged to follow that part which he judges to be more sure and more probable he is bound to embrace the true Faith which he believes to be more probable But out of this extremity he is not obliged because he judgeth prudently that he may persist in his idolatry In pursuance of this rule of probability that he acts prudently who follows a probable opinion I believe this Jesuit would not answer for the Salvation of a man who dyes in this estate since he must then believe that he may be saved without Faith and in Idolatry which is the greatest of crimes So that in saying he acts wisely in persisting in Idolatry he saith in effect that it is wisdom to walk in the darkness of death that it is prudence to destroy and precipitate himself into Hell in persuance of his rules of morality and grounding himself upon the principles of probability SECT II. That this Doctrine of Probability favours the Heretiques and nourisheth them in Heresie THe Doctrine of Probability is no lesse favourable to Heretiques then Infidels in that the ordinary arms whereof the Church makes use to defend it self against Heretiques and to assail them being Scripture Counsels Fathers and all that which we have received from the Ancients by Tradition the Jesuits and those who with them defend this Doctrine of Probability find not these evidences for their advantages and are so far from making use of them that they fear and fly from them all they can They cite in their Schools in their writings in a manner as often the Books of the Pagans as of the Scriptures they professe openly to preferre the new Authors above the Ancient they acknowledge not properly for Masters and Fathers any but those of their Society to the judgement and the censure of whom they submit frequently enough the judgements of the Saints which the Church hath always acknowledged for Masters and Fathers Divine or Ecclesiastick authority as well as Faith have scarce any credit in their Schools all as regulated and resolved by the authority of men and humane reason and in all contests and difficulties which they encounter if they cannot prevail by dispute they have recourse to those whom they regard as their Masters and Soveraign Judges in all sorts of matters They appeal to Suarez to Vasquez Molina Lessius and to others such like without making almost any mention of Jesus Christ the Apostles or the Ancient Fathers unless for form and without producing the definitions of the Councils or Traditions of the Church to determine the questions because they find them not conformable to their Spirit nor their designs some can make no use of them because they understand them not and even will not give themselves the trouble to study them and the others because they find not in them what is for their purpose Besides they wish they could content the whole World and answer all persons that consult them according to their humour and disposition Which obligeth them to look out for a Doctrine that is flexible and manageable and which may be accommodated to all occasions The maximes of Faith seem to them too fixed and the rules of the Church and the Gospel too firm and the opinions of the Holy Fathers too exact and too unmoveable For this cause they being not able to make use of them to establish the maximes of which they have need that they may make their designs to prosper and fearing on the other hand that they might be made use of against them to overturn their naughty maximes they find themselves as it were constrained by necessity to do all that they can directly or indirectly to corrupt them weaken them and to take away all credit from them In this they imitate and favour the hereticks of whom they have learned to reject the Holy Fathers especially in the difficulties which regard manners and the conduct of life and to despise Antiquity and Tradition through a blind love of their own novelties and proper imaginations and they are even in some sort more blameable then the Hereticks because they renounce the Father and the Tradition upon a pretence of holding to Scripture and these to follow their new Authors from whom they declare openly that we ought to take Law and rules for Christians Morals rather then from the Fathers of the Church Quae circa fidem emergunt dissicultates eae sunt ex veteribus hauriendae quae vero circa mores homini Christiano dignos à novitiis scriptcribus Colot l. 8 c. 16. p. 714. And indeed there hath never been any heresie which hath not had at the least some sort of probability because there hath yet never been any which hath not had some appearance of truth without which it could have found no followers the spirit of man not being capable to follow any thing but truth nor to be deceived but by the shaddow of it And it often happens that the greatest Heresies took for their foundation the greatest truths and have built on the strongest reasons Which shews clearly that if to follow a probable opinion be to act prudently and if an opinion be probable when it is grounded on the authority of some learned man or some likely reason as the Jesuits and those who hold their Doctrine of Probability tell us there is no heretick who may not maintain against them that he acts prudently whilest he lives in his heresie It is true that the Hereticks have misconceived the truths of which they would make use and especially those of the Scripture which they have corrupted in their sence and in their words that they might fit them to their thoughts and errours b Communis error ex probabili opinione ortus satu est ad gestorum per Sacerdotem vaâ—…em Sanch. op mor. l. 1. c. 9. n. 35. p.
thence by stronger reason that we are not bound thereunto upon any other occasion And by consequence the obligation to give alms is entirely abolished in all sorts of persons times and occasions But Lessius doth yet farther discover this pernicious Doctrine of his Company adding that even then when this so extream and rare necessity doth happen no person is particularly obliged to provide against it for that the obligation to assist our neighbour in this estate of extream necessity being general and common to all those who have means to do it every one may put it off from himself unto others in such manner that we cannot say that this man or that man in particular is obliged thereunto quae rarius ita contingit ut hunc vel illum in particulari graviter obliget That is to say that the Commandment to assist our neighbour in extream necessity is general to all those who are of ability but it doth ordinarily oblige none in particular And so according to Lessius Divinity a poor man being in entremity may dye of hunger in the view of many persons who may and ought assist him whilst they expect and attend one another no one of them being particularly bound to satisfie an obligation which is common unto them all together And it is from this Principle that he concludes 1 Fortè inter Christianos pauci sunt qui propter defectum operum misericordiae corporalium damnentur That it is apparent that amongst Christians there are few who shall be damned for failing to exercise the works of corporal mercy notwithstanding that the Scripture in divers places and Jesus Christ in the Gospel testifie expresly that the greatest part of men and even of Christians shall be damned for not giving alms and assisting their neighbour in his necessities For having declared that there shall be few Elect and few saved even amongst those that are called that is amongst Christians he declares also that in condemning them at the day of Judgment he will only reprove them for the default in alms and works of mercy saying unto them 2 Discedite à me maledicti in ignem aeternum qui paraâ—us est diabolo Angelis ejus 〈◊〉 â—ivi enim non dedistis mihi manducare sitivi non dedistis mihi bibere c Mat. 25. v. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels because I was hungry and you gave me not to eat I was thirsty and ye gave me not to drink Lessius observed this difficulty and he represents and objects it to himself but a consideration so powerful taken from the express word of Jesus Christ and from the sentence of eternal death which shall be pronounced against those who shall fail of performing the works of mercy was not sufficient to divert him from his opinion For without troubling himself with what Jesus Christ saith he replies in a way and expression which contains more of contempt than respect due unto the Word of God See here his terms 3 Nâ—c resert quod Dominus Matth. 25. formam judicii describens meminerit potius operum misericordiae quam aliorum id enim secit ut homines praesertim plebeios qui ad majora spiritualia parum sunt comparati in hac vita ad ea excitaret Haec autem ratio cessat in extremo judicio quia tunc komines nec erunt amplius ad opera misericordiae excitandi Lessiâ—… ibid. It is to no purpose to alledge that our Lord in the 25. Chapter of S. Matthew representing the form of the last Judgment speaks rather of works of mercy than of others For he doth it only to stir up men and particularly those of the common sort who are not capable to comprehend spiritual things to exercise these good works in this life Now this reason cannot have place in the last Judgment because then there will be no need to stir up men unto works of mercy He declares plainly that the Gospel is false and speaks false things to deceive the people and ignorant For if it be lawful to have this opinion of what Jesus Christ himself saith concerning his last Judgment and the circumstances and the words of that Judgment which he will pronounce concerning mens eternal life and death it will by stronger reason be lawful to have the same thoughts of other places of the Gospel which are not so important and generally of all since one cannot be more true than another So we may clude the whole Word of God when we meet therein any thing that doth not agree with our opinions and we shall give occasion particularly in this Subject to those who will conceive with Origen that the pains of the damned shall not be eternal to say that Jesus Christ hath not said that they shall be so but only to divert men from sin and to cause them to fear by proposing unto them infinite punishments according as this Jesuit saith that he neither threatens nor condemns those who fail to do works of mercy but only to intimidate men and particularly those of the Commonalty and to stir them up to employ themselves therein being incapable of other more elevated actions Being all good works are comprised and contained in alms fasting and prayer according to the Scripture it seems that having here treated particularly of alms I ought also to speak of fasting and of prayer because I have said that the Jesuits destroy and corrupt all good works in general But because I have spoken expresly of Fasting in the explication of the Commandments of the Church of Supplication in the Chapter of Prayer and also in that of Ecclesiastick Duties and the obligation which we have to say Divine Service I will be content to send the Reader thither to avoid tediousness and repetitions In reading those places we may find that the Jesuits are no less favourable to mens effeminacy than to their interests and that they are as large and indulgent in freeing them from all the pains of fasting and prayer as in exempting them from the obligation of giving their goods and doing alms testifying by this so obsequious Doctrine and so base and loose a conduct that all their study and care in a manner tends to the establishment of the Kingdom of Lust by favouring the corrupt passions and inclinations of men and in consequence thereof to destroy true Christian piety both in its fountain which is Charity and in its effects and fruits which are good Works CHAPTER V. Of the Sacraments AS the principal Questions which respect the Sacraments depend on the Institution of God and the Church and ought by consequence be resolved by Authority and Tradition the Jesuits who follow most usually their own sense and reason both in Divinity and Philosophy make almost as many faults as steps in this matter My design is not as I have already declared to report generally all their Errours no more than