Chapter III. That the Analogy of the Faith Cannot Serve as a Rule to the Ministers to Establish Their Doctrine

It is a saying full of pride and ambition amongst your ministers, and one which is ordinary with them, that we must interpret the Scriptures and test the exposition of them by the analogy of the faith. The simple people when they hear this analogy of the faith, think that it is some word of secret potency and cabalistic virtue; and they wonderingly admire every interpretation which is given, provided that this word be brought into the field. In truth the ministers are right when they say that we must interpret the Scripture, and prove our expositions of it by the analogy of faith; but they are wrong in not doing what they say. The poor people hear nothing but their bragging about this analogy of faith, and the ministers do nothing but corrupt, spoil, force it, and tear it to shreds. Let us look into this, I beg you. You say that the Scripture is easy to understand, provided that one adjust it to the rule and proportion, or analogy, of the faith. But what rule of faith can they have who have no Scripture except one entirely glossed, wrested, and strained by interpretations, metaphors, metonymies? If the rule is subject to irregularity, who shall regulate it? And what analogy or proportion of faith can there be, if a man proportion the articles of faith with conceptions the most foreign to their true sense? If the fact of proportion with the articles of faith is to serve you to decide

334 l'^^ upon doctrine and religion, leave the articles of faith in their natural shape; do not give them a form different from that which they have received from the Apostles. I leave you to guess what use the Symbol of the Apostles can be to me in interpreting the Scriptures, when you gloss it in such a way that you put me in greater difficulties about its sense than ever I was in about the Scriptures themselves.

If any one ask how the same body of Our Lord can come to be in two places, I shall say that this is easy to God, and I shall confirm it by this reason of faith: / believe in God the Father Almighty. But if you gloss both the Scripture and the article of faith itself, how will you confirm your gloss? At this rate there will be no first principle except your notions. If the analogy of faith be subject to your glosses and opinions, you must say so openly, that we may know what you are at, which will now be this — to interpret Scripture by Scripture and analogy, adjusting everything to your own interpretations and ideas. I apply the whole question [of the Eeal Presence] * to the analogy of the faith: this explanation agrees perfectly with that first word of the Creed where Credo takes away all difficulties of human reason; the omnipotentem strengthens me, the mention of creation heartens me; — for why sliall he who made all things out of nothing, not make the body of Christ out of bread? That name of Jesus comforts me, for his mercy and his will to do great things for me are there expressed. That he is the Son, consubstantial with the Father,, proves to me his illimitable power. His being conceived of a Virgin, against the

• See Preface.

ART. vTii. c. III.] The Rule of Faith, 335 course of nature; his not disdaining to lodge within her for our sakes; his being horn with penetration of dimension, an act which goes beyond and above the nature of a body — these things assure me both of his will and of his power. His dmth supports me; — for he who died for us, what will he not do for us? His se'pulchre cheers me, and his descent into hell; — for I shall not doubt his descent into the obscurity of my body, &c. His resurrection gives me fresh life; for this new penetration of the stone, the agility, subtlety, brightness, and impassibility of his body, are no longer according to the grosser laws which we conceive of. His ascension makes me rise to this faith; — for if his body penetrate matter, raise itself, by his sole will, and place itself, without place, at the right hand of the Father, why shall it not, here below, be where seems good to him, and occupy space only as he wills it to do? His being seated at the right hand of the Father shows me that everything is put under him, heaven, earth, distances, places, dimensions. T\idX from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead, urges me to the belief of the illimitability of his glory, and [teaches me] therefore that his glory is not attached to place, but that wherever he goes he carries it with him; — he is, then, in the most holy Sacrament without quitting his glory or his perfections. That Holy Ghost, by whose operation he was conceived and born of a Virgin, can equally well by his operation effect this admirable work of Transubstantiation. The Church, which is holy and cannot lead us into error, which is Catholic and therefore is not restricted to this miserable world, but is to extend in length from the Apostles, in breadth throughout

, the world, in depth as far as to Purgatory, in height to heaven, including all nations, all past ages, canonised saints, our forefathers of whom we have hope, prelates, councils old and recent — [she, through all these her members] sings in every place, Amen, Amen, to this holy belief.

This is the perfect Communion of Saints, for it is the food common to angels, and sainted souls in Paradise, and ourselves; it is the true bread of which all Christians participate. The forgiveness of sins^ the author of forgiveness being there, is confirmed; the seed of our resurrection sown, life everlasting bestowed. Where do you find contradiction in this holy analogy of faith? So much the reverse, that this very belief in the most holy Sacrament, which in truth, reality, and substance, contains the true and natural body of Our Lord, is actually the abridgment of our faith, according to that of the Psalmist: ^ He hath made a memory [of his wonderful works']. 0 holy and perfect memorial of the Gospel! 0 admirable summing up of our faith! He who believes, 0 Lord, in Your presence in this most holy Sacrament, as Your holy Church proposes it, has gathered and sucked the sweet honey of all the flowers of Your holy Eeligion: hardly can he ever fail in faith.

But I return to you, gentlemen, and simply ask what passages you will any longer oppose to me against such clear ones as these — This is my hody. That the flesh profiteth nothing? t — no, not yours or mine, which are but carrion, nor our carnal sentiments; not mere flesh, dead, without spirit or life; but that of the Saviour which is ever furnished with the life-

• ex. 4. t John VI.

ART. VIII. 0. III.] The Rule of Faith, 337 giving Spirit, and with his Word. I say that it profits unto life eternal all who worthily receive it: what say you? — that the words of Our Lord are spirit and life? * — who denies it save yourselves, when you say they are but tropes and figures? But what sense is there in this consequence: — the words of Our Lord are spirit and life, therefore they are not to be understood of his body? And when he said: The Son of man shall be delivered up to ie mocked and scourged, &c.t (I take as examples the first that come), were his words not spirit and life? — say then that he was crucified in figure. When he said: If therefore you see the Son of man ascending vjhere he was before (John vi.), does it follow that he only ascended in figure? And still these words are comprised among the rest, of which he said: They are spirit and life. Finally, in the Holy Sacrament, as in the holy words of our Lord, the spirit is there which vivifies the flesh, otherwise it would profit nothing; but none the less is the flesh there with its life and its spirit. What further will you say? — that this Sacrament is called bread? So it is; but as Our Lord explains: / am the living bread (lb.) These are fully sufficient examples: — as for you, what can you show like these? I show you an is, show me the is not, which you maintain, or the signifies. I have shown you the body J show me your effectual sign; seek, turn, turn again, make your spirit spin as fast as you like, and you shall never find it. At the very most you will show that when the words are somewhat strained, a few phrases in the Scriptures may be found like those you pretend to find here; but to esse from posse is a

• lb. i Luke xviii. 32.

III. y

^;^lame consequence: I say that you cannot make them fit; I say that if everybody takes them as he likes, the greater number will take them wrongly. But let us just see a piece of this work while it is being done. You produce for your belief: The luords which I speak are spirit and life; and this you fasten on: As often as you shall eat this bread; you add: Do this in commemoration of me; you bring up: Tou shall show forth the death of the Lord until he comes;* But me you shall not have always. But consider a little what reference these words have to one another. You adjust all this to the anomologyt of your faith, and how? Our Lord is seated at the right hand, therefore he is not here. Show me the thread with which you sew this negative to this affirmative: — because a body cannot be in two places. Ah! you said you would join your negative with analogy by the thread of Scripture: — where is this Scripture, that a body cannot be in two places? Just observe how you mingle the profane employment of a merely human reason with the Sacred Word? But, say you, Our Lord will come to judge the living and the dead from the right hand of his Father. What does this prove? If it were necessary for him to come, in order to become present in the Holy Sacrament, your analogy would have some speciousness, though not even then any reality, — for when he does come to judge nobody says that it will be on earth; the fire will precede. There is your analogy: in good earnest which has worked the better, you or I?

• I Cor. xi; John xii.

t kvofioKoyM, i.e., disproportion. A play on the word Analogy. [Tr.]

ART. VIII. 0. III.] The Rule of Faiths 339

If we let you interpret the Descent of Our Lord into hell as of the Sepulchre, or as of a fear of hell and of the pains of the damned, — the sanctity of the Church as the sanctity of an invisible and unknown Church, — its universality as that of a secret and hidden Church, — the Communion of Saints as simply a general benevolence,— the remission of sins as only a non-imputation; — when you shall have thus proportioned the Creed to your judgment, it will certainly be in good proportion with the rest of your doctrine, but who does not see the absurdity? The Creed, which is the instruction of the most simple, would be the most obscure doctrine in the world, and while it has to be the rule of faith, it would have to be regulated by another rule. The wicked walk round about.^ One infallible rule of our faith is this: God is All-mighty. He who says all excludes nothing, and you would regulate this rule, and would limit it so that it should not extend as far as absolute power, or the power of placing a body in two places, or of placing it in one without its occupying exterior space. Tell me, then — if the rule need regulation, who shall regulate it? Similarly the Creed says that Our Lord descended into hell, and Calvin would rule that this is to be understood of an imaginary descent; somebody else refers it to the sepulchre. Is not this to treat the rule as a Lesbian one, and to make the level bend to the stone instead of cutting the stone by the level. Indeed as S. Clement t and S. Augustine;]; call it rule, so S,

• Ps, xi. • t We do not find this passage in any authentic work of S. Clement [Tr.]

X Serm. 213, alias 119.

Ambrose * calls it key. But if another key be required to open this key where shall we find it? Is it to be the fancy of your ministers, or what? Will it be the Holy Spirit? — but everybody will boast that he has a share in this. Good heavens! into what labyrinths do they fall who quit the path of the Ancients! I would not have you think me ignorant of this, that the Creed alone is not the whole rule and measure of faith. For both S. Ausfustinet and the great Vincent of LerinsJ also call the sense of the Church {sentiment Ecclesiastique) rule of our faith. The Creed alone says nothing openly of the Consubstantiality, of the Sacraments, or of other articles of faith, but comprehends the whole faith in its root and foundation, particularly when it teaches us to believe the Church to be holy and Catholic; — for by this it sends us to what the Church shall propose. But as you despise the whole of the doctrine of the Church, you also despise this noble, this notable and excellent part of it, which is the Creed, refusing belief in it until you have reduced it to the petty scale of your conceptions. Thus do you violate this holy measure and proportion which S. Paul requires to be followed, yea, even by the prophets themselves.^

• Appendix, Serm. 33. More probably belongs to S. Maximus of Turin. [Tr.]

t Contra Ep. Fund 4, $. % Comm. c. ii. § i Cor. xiv