cy-devant est tombée dans la Corruption et dans l Erreur § 1. Corruption horrible dans ses Moeurs p. 80. § 2. Erreurs extremement grossieres dans sa Doctrine pag. 88. Conclusion Generale Que j'estois engagé de sortir de l'Eglise de Rome aprés que Dieu m'en eut fait connoître les Erreurs par les degrés que j'ay marqués dans les deux Parties de ce Discours pag. 88. § 1. L'Occasion d'un Sermon que je préchay sur le sujet du Sacrement me rappella dans l'Esprit toutes les idées que j'avois des Erreurs de Rome pag. 91. § 2. Les repugnances que je souffris et les difficultés qu'il me falut surmonter pag. 94. § 3. Les raisons que je meditay dans mon esprit pour differer ma Conversion pag. 96. § 4. Dieu par sa misericorde me fait vivement comprendre le grand peché que c'est que de s'opposer au saint Esprit et ainsi acheve ma Conversion en me faisant genereusement abandonner la Communion de Rome pag. 101. TABLE INTRODUCTION § 1. The Reasons wherefore I have been engaged to write these Memoires Pag. 1. § 2. That the Conversion of a man who did live in the Errors of the Roman Church is a very great Miracle pag. 5. § 3. After what manner and by what degrees the Spirit of God made me understand my Errors pag. 9. FIRST PART That the Doctrin of the Roman Church is not grounded neither upon the belief of the Primitive Church or the Authority of the Holy Fathers CHAP. I. How I understood that the Doctrin of the Roman Church is not grounded upon the Scripture § 1. The Reading of the Scripture disposes me to acknowledge the Errors of Rome pag. 11. § 2. The Errors of the Roman Church whereof I was perswaded made me find in the Scripture many Difficulties many Insufficiencies and many Contradictions pap 16. § 3. Circumstances which did contribute to hasten my Conversion pag. 22. § 4. Conclusion of this Chapter That the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church cannot be proved by Scripture pag. 26. CHAP. II. How I understood that the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church are not grounded upon the Belief of the Primitive Church nor upon the Authority of the Holy Fathers INTRODUCTION The reading of the Books concerning The Perpetuity of Faith in the Eucharist was an occasion to me to examin in particular the Belief of the Roman Church about that matter pag. 30. Division of the Errors of Rome concerning the Eucharist pag. 34. Section I. That the belief of Rome about the real Presence in the sense of Transubstantiation is a new Doctrin in the Church I. First Proof drawn out of the Arguments wherewith the Fathers of the Church had wont to Dispute against the Heathens pag. 36. II. Second Proof drawn out of the Reasons wherewith the same Fathers had wont to Dispute against the Hereticks pag. 41. III. Third Proof drawn out of the manner whereafter the Fathers had wont to speak of the Holy Saerament pag. 44. IV. Fourth Proof drawn out of the novelty of the Doctrin teaching Transubstantiation pag. 48 Section II. That that which is taught of the Sacrifice of the Mass in the Church of Rome is a Doctrin contrary to the belief of the Primitive Church I. In what sense it is true to say that the Holy Sacrament is a Sacrifice pag. 50. II. That the pretended Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Roman Church is contrary to the Scripture pag. 53. III. What has given occasion to that Error and the degrees of Corruption which brought forth that belief pag. 56. IV. That the horrid abuse which is slid in the Roman Church to offer their Sacrifices in the honour of Saints is a practice contrary to that of the Primitive Church pag. 59. Section III. That the manner of Administring the Sacrament in the Roman Church is quite different and very much opposed to that to which they were used in the first Ages of the Church I. That in the time of the Apostles and in the first ages of the Church they gave the Communion to all the People under both kinds they worshipped not the Host and celebrated not the Holy Mysteries in an unknown Tongue pag. 64. II. The beginning of all the Errors of the Roman Church in the Administration of the Sacrament pag. 70. 1. The beginning of the Abridgement of the Cup. pag. 71. 2. The beginning of the Worship of the Host pag. 74. 3. The beginning of the celebration of the Eucharist in an unknown Tongue pag. 78. Conclusion of the First Part. That the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church cannot be proved by the practice of the Primitive Church nor by the authority of the ancient Fathers pag. 80. Second Part. That the Church of Rome is not the true Church that it's Authority is not Infallible and that it is full of Corruptions and Errors INTRODUCTION The Divine Providence brought forth some occasions which made me resolve to examin the very first grounds of the Question concerning the Authority of the Roman Church pag. 1. 1. The occasion that I had to examin a-new all the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church all which I reduced to the Authority of the same Church pag. 3. 2. The occasion that I had to doubt of the Infallibility of the Pope made me resolve to examin again and without passion upon which is grounded that Authority which the Church of Rome boasts so much pag. 6. 3. Circumstances wherewith I began to examin the Authority of the Roman Church and what I do design in the Rehearsal of them pag. 12. CHAP. I. Of the pretended grounds of the Authority of the Roman Church pag. 16. Section I. That Antiquity Multitude and Succession are not priviledges which ever the Roman Church had enjoyed above all other Churches pag. 20. § 1. That the Roman Church is not the Eldest of all the Churches pag. 21 § 2. That the Multitude is not on the Roman Churches side pag. 25. § 3. That other Churches as well as the Roman have their Succession from Bishop to Bishop from the very Apostles pag. 29. Section II. That neither Antiquity neither Multitude neither Succession are not Infallible marks of the true Church and consequently that a Church may have them all and with them all be an Heretical Church pag. 32. § 1. That Antiquity is not an Infallible mark of the true Church pag. 33. § 2. That the Multitude is not an Infallible mark of the true Church pag. 39. § 3. That the Succession is not an Infallible mark of the true Church pag. 45. Conclusion That it is the Succession of the true Doctrin from the Apostles which is an Infallible mark of the true Church and that the Church of Rome which hath not the Succession of the Doctrin has no reason to boast neither of its Antiquity neither of the Multitude neither
caused me to defer it again after it had made me understand that this same Romish Faith was grounded neither upon the Authority of the Holy Fathers nor upon the Practice of the Ancient Christians according to the pretensions of the Roman Theologians This Pretence was the Authority of Rome which I supposed Infallible and it was that pretended Infallible Authority which kept me stil in its Communion If the Roman Church be Infallible what matter is it whether the Articles determined by it have any foundation in the Word of God or upon the Authority of the Fathers or Practice of the Primitive Church As long as we suppose it Infallible we must believe all the Articles it teaches and it signifies nothing to say that such or such an Article of Faith was not heretofore believed When the Roman Church shall declare it an Article of Faith to believe That the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without any original sin and that we must hold as oecumenick the Council of Basil that * Sess 36. teaches us this Doctrine When this Church shall declare That all Christians are truly and really buried in Jesus Christ in Baptism That the Water used in that Sacrament is transubstantiated into Christ's own true Blood wherein our sins are purified and That it is an Heresie to believe that under the appearances of the Water of the Baptism there remains something of the substance of Water That Baptism must be worshipped When the Church shall be pleased to determine all these Articles and to declare that they are implicitly in (a) Rom. 6.3 4. Col. 2.12 Gal. 3.27 Scripture and in the (b) St. August Epist 164. ad Emerit Fathers we shall be obliged to believe them because the Church is Infallible This way of dealing to acknowledge plainly that neither the Fathers of the Church nor the first Christians believed many Articles of Faith which are now believed in the Church of Rome seemed to me a great deal more sincere than to seek in the Fathers what they never said and to make the Primitive Church believe things which it did never so much as think of This way of dealing freely was a little bold but it was just sincere and very easie According to that Method when one asks a Theologian Why do you believe Transubstantiation he presently answers that he believes Transubstantiation as an Article of Faith Because the Council of (c) Sess 13. cap. 4. Trent hath declared that it is an Article of Faith and pronounced Anathema against those who should hold the contrary Is is not better to answer thus than to break ones brain to give unto the Fathers both Greek and Latin several Explications which they would not avow if they were alive and to make the World believe that in those Passages of the Fathers wherein they use these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have intended to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Expression not to be found in any of those Fathers as it is observed by a late (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. Eccles tom 1. part post p. 247. Bishop of Norwich cited by Dr. Hammond in his Catechism I see very well said I that after the Examination of the Scripture and of the Fathers wherein it is impossible to find evidently the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church the shortest way is to refer all the business to the Authority of the Church Thus if the Authority of the Roman Church be Infallible to deal fairly simply justly and honestly we must say I believe the Christian People for whom Christ shed all his Blood ought not to partake of the Chalice of his Blood because the Council of (b) Sess 13. Constance and the Council of (c) Sess 21. Trent have so determined I believe that besides the Sacrifice of the Cross there is another Propitiatory Sacrifice viz. the Mass which blots out the Sins both of the Quick and the Dead because the Council of * Sess 22. chap. 1 2. can 1 2 3. Trent made that an Article of Faith And say the same honestly and in good earnest of Purgatory of Indulgences of Invocation of Saints and of other Articles and not headily drive on to find in the Primitive Church Articles of Faith whereof it had never so much as the least knowledge or Notion Thus there remains nothing but to examine if the Authority of the Roman Church be Infallible This was the indivisible Point whereupon I fixed all my Religion thither I reduced all the Controversial Questions wherefore I examined that Question of the Infalliblity of the Roman Church but whether because I was afraid to find the Infallibility of Rome as ill grounded as the Doctrine of Transubstantiation whether because the greediness I had to maintain with credit and reputation the Authority of the Church which I was ingaged at that time to sustain in Publick Disputes had distracted and blinded me whether because Grace was not pleased at that time to make an end of my Conversion but would have me grow ripe and root very profoundly in my mind the Reasons I had meditated to fasten me more and more in the Faith of the Holy Word I devised many Proofs and many Reasons both good and bad I perswaded my self first that I might perswade others more easily and I maintained in my Publick Theses That the Roman Church even that the Pope alone was Infallible when he determins something that belongs to the Faith That Perswasion kept me still in the Church of Rome wherefore I began to be asswaged and to change my Discourse and whereas I had considered the Articles of Faith of that Church as so many Errors because they were not agreeable with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and the Testimony of the Fathers I considered them at that time only as some Novelties which were not criminal since I supposed that Church being Infallible had right to produce every day and to declare new Articles of Faith In that Supposal when some Learned Man asked me my Sentiment in particular upon some Question of Divinity I soon return'd according to my Opinion and I reduced all the Questions to the Infallibility of Rome But when I was obliged to speak in publick and before the People I thought my self ingaged for fear of scandalizing and discontenting weak minds to use the Method which others use every where and to bring though against my own perswasion some Passages of the Scripture and some Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers of the Church to prove in particular every Article of the Roman Faith Such was my dealing at that time when the only Perswasion of the Infallibility of Rome fastened me in its Communion The END of the FIRST PART THE SECOND PART SECONDE PARTIE Que l'Eglise Romaine n'est poin◠la Veritable Eglise que so◠Authorité n'est point Infaillible qu'elle n'est remplie qu◠de Corruptions d'Erreurs INTRODUCTION La Providence fit naistre des
came to present themselves distinctly to my mind with the most hidden most secret and most mysterious â—ricks they be cloathed withal and in â—vriting for the infallible Authority of â—he Pope I began to learn that the Pope was not infallible and by consequent that all the Articles of Faith of the Church of Rome which I grounded upon such an infallibility were grounded upon a lye 1. The occasion I had to examine anew all the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church which I reduced all to the Authority of the same Church I Had not yet the age that the Canons of the Church required to be ordained a Priest when I had made an end of my Course of Divinity and the General of the Order of which I was besides the ordinary permission of preaching which he uses to give to those who were judged to have the necessary aptitudes to teach and edifie the people sent me an extraordinary permission to preach the word of God though I was but a Deacon I was sent that year to dwell in the Monastery of the chief town of Champagne and the superior of that Monastery who was a person of an extraordinary capacity and consummated vertue appointed me to teach publickly the Catechism in one of the Churches of that town I did it and whereas the concurrence of the Articles of Faith which I discoursed of obliged me to discourse of matters of Controversie I had occasion to examine them to consider all the reasons both for and against to instruct my self leasurely of all the truths of the word of God and to discover all the errours of the Roman Church every one in particular Yet I did not publish in the Pulpit the light of truth wherewith God Almighty lightened my mind and I did preach the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church whereof I was but a litle perswaded I must needs here O my God give satisfaction for the wrong I did to truth Many people that followed the Wars who Wintered in that Town where I preached came to hear my Catechisms two of them which were of the Protestant Religion one an Officer and the other a common Souldier born on in the Province of Languedoc the other in that of Poicton came to tell me that the reasons I brought forth for the defence of the Faith of Rome had perswaded them that they were ready to forsake and forswear their heresies and that they prayed me to instruct them farther in the Principles of the Roman Religion I did it I instructed them a while and I made them to forswear according to the forms of Rome unto the Superior of that Monastery Ah! could those men hear my voice I would cry unto them with all my heart Come again Brethren come again into the lap of the Church from which I pluck'd you out the reasons I alledged to you I acknowledge now they were but Sophismes the Authors I cited I made them speak against their own minds expounding them after some ill constructions in fine the places of the Scripture which I caused you to take notice of read them again and again without preoccupation and you shall find that they teach nothing less than what is taught in the Church of Rome That antiquity which I attributed to that Church began only after the purity of the Gospel had been corrupted by the Bishops of Rome that Church which I said was the image of the Primitive I said was the image of the Primitive Church is truly the Church of the latter-times whereof St. Paul * 1 Tim. 4. speaks a Church which forbids to mary a Church which holds that it is a sin to eat certain meats in certain times and by consequent a most corrupt Church wherewith the Primitive Church hath no commerce or conformity in short I should tell them freely that I did not believe my self at that time that the Articles of the Faith of Rome were grounded either upon the Authority of the Scripture or the Authority of the Fathers of the Primitive Church and that all that I was detained withall in the Communion of Rome was the belief which I was perswaded of that the Pope was infallible which belief I have discovered since to be false and a great errour 2. The occasion I had to doubt of the infallibility of the Pope made me resolve the examine again and without passion upon what the Authority which the Church of Rome boasts so much of is grounded AFter I had continued to teach the Catechism in that Town my Superiours destinated me to dwell in the Monastery of Sens in Burgundy I arrived there in the time whereat the Lord Archbishop of Sens had resolved to make an end of the difference he had had a great while with all the Monks of his Diocess concerning the right he stood upon to make his visitation in their Churches he had already begun to deal compulsively with some of the Monasteries which are in his Diocess and the Provincial of our Order fearing that my Lord Archbishop would deal after the same manner with the Monastery of Sens and that the Monks should withstand him to the scandal of all the people gave order to the Superior of that Monastery to go to my Lord Archbishop and to inform him of the reasons which the Monks insisted upon to withstand the Bishops and not suffer them to hold any visitation in their Monasteries the Superior desired me to come with him he went to my Lord Archbishop discourst to him his reasons according to the order he had received of the Provincial and my Lord of Sens who was a learned man a sublime spirit skil'd in all Canonical matters gave his answers to all that the Superior had proposed to him I heard that great Archbishop with all the respect and veneration I was to do and I stayed holding my peace till his Grace was pleased to begin to me and desire me to speak if I had any thing to answer to what he had said I told his Grace as compendiously as I could what I had remarked in his answers which I was not contented with and I answered to his reasons as succintly as it was possible Some days after the Provincial wrote to me and desired me to send him the result of the Conference with my Lord Archbishop and to write him withall what I my self in particular thought of the Contention we had with the Bishops concerning the matters of Jurisdiction I examined the question in its principles I reduced the Conference we had with my Lord Archbishop to some Capital Arguments whereupon I wrote fully and at length all my remarks in form of Reflexions which I sent to the Provincial as he desired me to do whereupon he wrote to me the most obliging letter in the world Those Reflexions I had made give me a great desire to examine the greatness of the Power which is attributed to the Pope in the Church of Rome and gave me the occasion to weigh
Memoires DE Mr. DES-ECOTAIS Cy devant appelle dans l'Eglise Romaine Le Tres Venerable PERE CASSIAN de PARIS Prestre et Predicateur de l'Ordre des Capucins OV Les MOTIFS de sa CONVERSION Divisés en Deux Parties I. Que la Doctrine de l'Eglise Romaine d'apresent n'est fondée ny sur l'Ecriture Sainte ny sur la creance de la Primitive Eglise ny sur l'Authorité des Saints Peres Cequi est plus particulierement et plus evidement verifié dans l'examen de la creance de Rome touchant l'Euchristie II. Que l'Eglise Romaine n'est point la veritable Eglise qu'elle n'a pointe de son costé exclusivement et au prejudice des autres Eglises Christiennes ny l' Antiquite de la foy ny la Multitude du Peuple ny la veritable et legitime Succession des Evéques Que son Authorite n'est point infaillible et qu'elle est toute pleine d'Erreurs et de Corruptions A LONDRES Imprimé chez G. Godbid et se vend chez Moyse Pit à l'Ange vis à vis la petite porte de St. Paul 1677. Memoires OF Mr. DES-ECOTAIS Formerly stiled in the Church of Rome The most Venerable FATHER CASSIANUS of PARIS Priest and Preacher of the Order of the Capucins OR THE MOTIVES of his CONVERSION Divided into Two Parts I. That the Doctrin of the now Roman Church is not grounded neither upon the Holy Scripture neither upon the belief of the Primitive Church or the Authority of the Holy Fathers which is more particularly and more evidently verified in the examination of the Belief of Rome concerning the Eucharist II. That the Church of Rome is not the true Church that it doth not enjoy as absolutely its own outshutting all other Churches neither the Antiquity of the Belief neither the multitude of the People neither the true and lawful Succession of the Bishops That the Authority thereof is not Infallible and that it is full of Errors and Corruptions LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel over-against the little North Door of St. Paul 's Church 1677. DEDICATION A MONSEIGNEUR Illustrissime et Reverendissime HENRY Evéque de LONDRES Doyen de la Chapelle du Roy Et un des SEIGNEURS Du Conseil Privé de sa Majesté MONSEIGNEVR CE n'est pas d'aujourd'huy que ceux qui quittent le party de l'Erreur pour ambrasser la Verité se trouvent exposez à la persecution du monde et ce n'est pas d'aujourd'huy non plus qu'ils ont besoin de puissants protecteurs pour les deffendre contre l'injustice Vôtre Grandeur sçait que St. Paul n'eut pas plûtôt le tître et la qualité de Nouveau Converty qu'il se trouva abandonné et persecuté de toute la terre Il a beau alleguer aux Juifs les Motifs de sa Conversion disputer contre eux et les confondre les Juifs n'en sont pas pour cela moins enragez contre luy Ces méchants s'imaginent toûjours que les motifs qui ont obligé Paul à quitter la Religion de ses peres pour embrasser la pureté de l'Evangile ne sont autres que l'inconstance de son esprit ou le desir dela nouveauté et dans cette pensée ils le regardent comme un Deserteur et comme un Apostat ils luy dressent des embûches ils font des complots et des conspirations pour le mettre à mort et s'imaginent qu'ils ne peuvent rendre à Dieu un service plus Religieux que de s'obliger par un voeu solemnel à ne point boire ny manger jusqu'à ce qu'ils ayent trempé leurs mains dans le sang de Paul St. Paul est obligé de s'enfuïr il faut qu'il sorte de Damas par dessus les murailles pour éviter la fureur de ses ennemis et qu'il se retire à Jerusalem pour estre plus en seureté Et là St. Paul tout Vase d'election qu'il est il a le déplaisir de voir que les disciples même évitent sa compagnie le craignent et ne se fient pas à luy par ce qu'ils ont peur que sa conversion ne soit une conversion feinte imparfaite et dissimulée et il saut qu'il ait recours à un Apôtre qui luy serve de Protecteur qui le presente aux Disciples et qui leur fasse entendre les moyens admirables dont Dieu s'estoit servy pour operer sa conversion Voilà l'estat où se trouvoit reduit St. Paul aprés sa conversion et c'est aussi l'estat Monseigneur où se trouve reduit encore en ce siecle un homme nouvellement converty D'un costé ceux desquels il abandonne le party deviennent ses plus cruels et plus irreconciliables ennemis ils ne le menacent de rien moins que de le perdre et si leurs voeux et leurs dessins pernicieux n'estoient arrestez par la severité des Loys on verroit bientôt les consequences tragiques de leur Zele indiscret et passionné D'un autre côté un grand nombre de ceux avec lesquels il fait profession dela Pureté de l'Evangile ne se veulent point fier à luy ils le fuyent ils le craignent pour les mêmes raisons pour lesquelles les Disciples craignoient Paul ils ont peur qu'il ne soit pas veritablement converty ils craignent que sa conversion ne soit interressée et imparfaite ou du moins ils craignent qu'elle ne soit pas de durée et qu'aprés avoir demeuré quelque temps parmy eux il ne retourne à son erreur et ne deviene encore une fois le Persecuteur de l'Evangile et dela Verité Que deviendra dans cet estat un pauvre nouveau Converty Pour ceux dont il a quitté les erreurs et qui le persecutent sans misericorde et sans charité il n'a que des prieres à faire à l'Eternel pour leur Conversion dans le temps même qu'il est le plus cruellement persecuté et il leve incessament les mains vers le Ciel pour reconnoistre que les pechez qu'il a commis sont les seules causes qui attirent sur sa teste toutes ces persecutions Mais à l'égard de ceux avec lesquels il fait profession d'une même Foy il a besoin aussi bien que St. Paul d'un puissant Protecteur qui soit son avocat qui parle en sa faveur et qui fasse connoistre aux peuples que sa conversion n'est pas l'ouvrage de l'interrest de l'inconstance ou dela necessité mais que c'est un ouvrage de Dieu et un effet de ses misericordes
them with the Zeal of their Salvation and to turn away their hearts out of Error as he did yours Ah! how many thanks are you to give to God Almighty that he has drawn you out of the Tyranny where you were born But we should be very glad to hear the particularities of your Conversion And it is to rehearse them that I undertook this Discourse to engage you to joyn your Thanksgivings to mine for to thank Him to praise Him and to glorifie Him admiring the Greatness of his Goodness and the Wonders he doth work in the Souls of those whom he has 〈…〉 § 2. The Conversion of a Man who did live in the errors of the Roman Church is a very great Miracle SAint Peter's Chains broken by themselves many Blind men recovering their Eyes many Sick bodies healed many Dead rais'd up again these are very great Miracles and marvellous Deeds of the Highest's Mighty Hand But the Divine alterations which Grace works in our Souls are a great deal more marvellous more worthy of God's Majesty better becoming his Almightiness The Man whom the Finger of God has touched to work the Miracle of his Conversion doth not know himself any more so considerable is that change he feels his Soul entirely perswaded of certain Truths which God has revealed which he regarded heretofore as so many lies and he finds himself delivered from a multitude of errors which he worshipped as the Truth it self Peradventure you would have supposed that the prejudications of Error which he found in his mind from his Child-hood might be like so many petty Tyrants and young Devils who perplex him who vex him who trouble the quietness of his Conscience and raise up in him dimness and darkness stealing from his Eyes the very light of Truth You are mistaken Grace gives him strength to dissipate the evil Spirits and to withstand Error He doth enjoy the light of the Gospel with a peace and quietness which cannot be expressed and as the dawning of the Day which comes first after Night is received by all Creatures with more pleasant and more delightful wellcome than the very Light of Noon so I dare say there happens sometimes the same thing in the state of Grace A Soul newly lightened enjoys sometimes the Light with more pleasure and sweetness than do those who have been all their life long in the broad day-light of the Gospel That a man should live in such a Tranquillity of Conscience as the Saints themselves enjoy in Heaven That he should find pleasure and sweetness in being perswaded of a Truth which he lookt upon before as an Heresie and did not think of without Horrour it is a prodigious work of the Highest it is Almighty Gods mighty hand A Christian who has prostituted himself to all his Passions who has dived into all kinds of Vices and Deboachments who has transgressed all the Commandements of God when Grace touches and Converts him it is a great Miracle yet that man who prostituted himself to all kinds of Vices did never conceive any horrour against those who follow Virtue He did consider Virtue as a very hard thing but not as an Abomination and in the very same time wherein he broke all the Commandements he thought not that it was a great sin to keep them He did not look upon those who observed them as so many Monsters as so many Franticks as a people who deserving the malediction of God and the execration of Men ought to be exterminated out of the World with Sword and Fire But a Man who did live in the errors of Rome before God had hightened him by his Grace he looked upon the Reformed Church as a Church full of Abomination he never spoke of those who follow that Church but with Imprecation and Cursing he never read any proposition of their Doctrin but presently he added an Anathema and damned them to the pit of Hell he had rather have the conversation of Devils than that of a Protestant In a word all the Invectives Raylings Imprecations Maledictions Anathematizations he could heap up were to be poured out upon those who do profess the purity of the Gospel When after all those Repugnancies and Estrangements which seemed to be an obstacle to Truth you see a Man mollified opening his Eyes to the Grace of God changing his Dispositions his Notions his Thoughts and all his Manners Is not that a prodigie of Grace Have I not reason to say that this Miracle is not only greater than that whereby God gives again Eyes to the Blind Life to the Dead but even a great deal more marvellous than that which Grace works in the Conversion of the greatest Sinners § 3. After what manner the Spirit of God made me understasnd my Errors THe Lord our God doth not always shew altogether at once the effects of his mighty Power nor doth he work always after the same manner in all the Conversions of Sinners He speaks sometimes with a thundering Voice which altogether at once beats down dazles and converts a Sinner And it was with such a Voice he spoke to (a) Act. 9. St. Paul when in a minute of time he turned him from the most furious Enemy of the Gospel into a very Zealous Preacher of the same Gospel Other times he begins to speak to a Sinner softly and a great way off He prepares him he prevents him and he puts him in the Dispositions he judges fit for his Conversion It is after this manner he converted the (b) Act. 8. Eunuch of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians he doth not overturn him out of his Chariot he doth not cast him to the ground to Convert him suddenly as he did afterwards St. Paul but he dispoes him by the reading of the Scripture to receive the light of the Gospel And it is after this manner the Lord has been pleased to draw me out of the Errors of Rome and to bring me through his great Mercies to profess here freely the purity of his Holy Word This is that which I intend to rehearse in all this Discourse in the First Part whereof I will recite how I understood that the Doctrin of the now Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers And in the Second Part how I understood that the Church of Rome is not the True Church that its Authority is not Infallible and that it is full of Corruptions and Errors FIRST PART The Doctrin of the Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Scripture nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers CHAP. I. How I understood the Doctrin of the Roman Church to be not grounded upon the Scripture §. I. The Reading of the Scripture disposed me before-hand to acknowledge the Errors of Rome BEing in the Ecclesiastical Orders of the Church of Rome I thought
puis je pas dissimuler aussi bien qu'eux s'ils trompent le peuple ne puis-je pas le tromper aussi ne m'acquitter qu'exterieurement de toutes les fonctions que l'on exigera de moy §. 4. Dieu me fit vivement comprendre le grand peché que c'est que de s'opposer au Saint Esprit ainsi acheva ma Conversion en me faisant genereusement abandonner la Communion de Rome PEV s'en fallut que toutes ces belles suppositions qui se presentoient en foule à mon Esprit ne me fissent rester encore dans l'Eglise Romaine Passer sa vie dans le repos dans l'assurance dans la tranquilité au millieu de ses parents de ses amis au millieu d'un peuple qui vous adore ces pensées faisoient dans mon ame des prejugez bien puissants qui m'empéchoient quasi de découvir l'Erreur la fausseté de toutes ces suppositions Mais enfin la Grace fit un dernier effort pour me détacher elle me fit vivement conçevoir que Dieu est la Verité même que le Men songe la dissimulation n'ont point d'autre pere que le Diable Quoy donc passeray-je le reste de ma vie à seduire les peuples à leur persuader ceque je ne croy pas moy même Helas ces pauvres gens s'imagineront que je leur parle du fond de mon coeur que je leur annonce les volontez de Dieu que je leur â—anifeste ses ordres je ne serois que l'instrument du Demon Ces peuples qui n'ont ny le temps ny l'occasion de s'instruire eux mêmes dans les Saintes Escritures parceque ce sont des tresors que le Pape leur à cachés viendront me consulter sur leur doutes J'appercevray quelquefois dans ces ames innocentes les divins rayons de la Grace qui se plaist d'operer puissament dans les ames simples comme le soleil dans des terres incultes he quoy faudra-t-il que j'aye l'insolence de resister à l'Esprit de Dieu d'opposer un grand Mensonge appuyé de plusieurs Sophismes pour estouffer les Veritez naissantes que la Grace aura produites auray-je la temerité de dire que Dieu parle quand Dieu ne parle pas ne seroit-ce pas estre bien scelerat que de tromper d'abuser des gens qui s'addressent à vous avec tant d'innocence de sincerité Les examples de tous ces Sçavants que je me suis proposés ne me serviront de rien pour répondre au Tribunal de la Justice de Dieu leurs pechez ne me seront point une excuse Il me sembla pour lors que j'entendois sonner à mes oreilles toutes les maledictions que Dieu donne aux faux Prophetes à ceux qui seduisent son peuple Et que fait un Prestre qui dit la Messe dans l'Eglise Romaine qui est pleinement persuadé dela Verité dela Parole de Dieu ne fait-il pas accroire au peuple qu'il sacrifie tous les jours Jesus Christ ne leur fait-il pas accroire que dans le Sacrement il n'y a plus de Pain mais que le Pain est Transubstantié au Corps au Sang de Jesus Christ n'est-il pas coupable devant Dieu de toutes les Idolatries du peuple de toutes ses Erreurs c Ces derniers obstacles estant renversez la Grace m'ayanht fait voir l'Erreur de toutes ces fausses suppositions qui s'estoient élevées en faveur du sang de la chair je pris ma derniere resolution de quitter-l'Eglise Romaine de me retirer dans quelque päys où je pûsse estre libre de faire publiquement profession de la Purité de l'Evangile Je prévoyois bien qu'il me falloit dire un Adieu Eternal à toutes les satisfactions du monde prendre congé de tous les divertissements ne m'attendre plus qu'à des traversses des troubles des ennüis à toutes les persecutions que me feront les ennemis de l'Evangile je voyois bien que j'enterprenois la plus grande affaire de ma vie mais l'esperance de mon salut estoit cequi m'animoit la consolation interieure que je ressentois de suivre les lumiers de l'Esprit de Dieu me sit passer par dessus toutes sortes de difficultez Voilà comme j'abbandonnay la Communion de Rome voilà les moyens dont la Grace s'est servy pour me convertir voilà quelle a esté la conduitte de Dieu sur moy voilà quelle a osté l'abondance de ses misericordes non seulement il m'a esclairé des plus pures lumieres de son Evangile m'a fait connoistre mes Erreurs mais encore il m'a retiré de ces Erreurs par la force toute puissante de son bras m'a porté dans un pais plein de lumiere de Verité dans lequel Jesus Christ fait son Royaume où l'on entend parler des Erreurs de l'Eglise de Rome que pour en concevoir de l'horreur de la detestation Le Seigneur de toutes les Grandes Misericordes nous conserve dans la pureté de son Evangile rappelle ceux qui volontairement ou par Ignorance se sont égarez du droit chemin leur fasse la grace de recevoir de tout leur coeur l'amour dela Veritê afin que le nombre de ceux qu'il a choisis de toute Eternité s'accroisse tous les jours de plus en plus à la gloire à l'honneur de son Saint Nom. Amen FIN SECOND PART The Church of Rome is not the true Church its Authority is not infallible and that it is full of Corruptions and Errours INTRODVCTION The Divine Providence brought forth some occasions which made me resolve to examine the very first grounds of the question concerning the Authority of the Roman Church THE same truth may have different aspects of light ccording to the diverse sides whereby it is look't upon Truth is otherwise look't upon when it is Taught otherwise when it is Preached otherwise when it is Examined with learned men otherwise when in particular by private writings or meditations yet all those ways bring every one of them their â—â—ght and peculiar strength which contributes extreamly to fasten ones Soul And forasmuch as Grace intended to â—stablish me in the knowledge of the â—ruth after a solid and immoveable â—anner a thing being almost always â—s well known by it's contrarie's knowledge as by the knowledge or notion of it's own self in teaching and preaching the Articles of Faith of the Roman Church the errors of the Roman Church
all kind of gainful Bulls whereupon Pope Sixtus IV. was wont to say That he should never want mony if so be that he should never want Pen and Ink to write Do but open the Historians and you shall find there the crafty tricks which the Popes have used to draw huge sums of mony out of the Kingdoms that have acknowledged his jurisdiction About the year 1216 whilst England overcharged and almost opprest groaned still under the tyranny of the Pope the Pope sent his Legates into this kingdom they Preached a Crosadoe against the Turks and the Bull of the Pope granted those who would make a voew to go into the Holy land to recover the holy Sepulcher the forgiveness of their sins and a degree of Glory in Heaven above the rest upon this a great multitude of Gentry sold and mortgaged their Lands and Estates for the charge of that journey but as they were armed and furnished for their journey another Legate came that dispensed the English from their vow and gave them the same graces and indulgences without budging from their own houses provided they would give to the Pope as much mony as was necessary to have been spent in their journey These are the fine devices which the Pope used to draw mony out of England never a year past but the Popes sent over into this Kingdom some new Commissions some new pretenses to raise mony in so much that the Pope called England his garden of pleasure and his bottomless treasure It is by the means of Bulls Indulgences Forgivenesses Dispensations and other such stuffes the Pope has used to draw from other Kingdoms as well as from England innumerable summes of mony In the time of Martin V. they brought out of France to Rome 9000000 nine millions of Crowns which are 2250000l two millions two hundred fifty thousand pounds sterling and at this time the Popes are wont to complain of France and the Italians stile it Heretick or at least Semiheretick because the Pope has now out of that Kingdom every year but 28 Tuns of Gold which are 560000l five hundred sixty thousand pounds sterling and 1690000l sixteen hundred ninety thousand pounds sterling less than they had used to receive Do but judge from thence what he has what he had and what he intends to have out of all the other Kingdoms which are submitted to his dominion Conclusion of the second Part. That the Roman Church being founded upon the principles which I have rehearsed is fallen into Corruption and Error §. 1. Horrid Corruptions in its Manners WHat can we expect of a Church which is grounded upon Ambition and Covetousness but that it must fall into abundance of Errors and prostitute it self to all kind of corruption and so it is happened to the Church of Rome Do but read the lives of the Popes who have ruled it since its fall you shall find there such dreadful and horrid stories as scarcely could you find amongst Turks and Idolaters Pope John XI who was Bastard to Pope Sergius governed the Roman Church about the year 931. he was a Monster as Baronius himself relates yet for all that he was the chief of the Roman Church Do but judge now what could that Church be whose head was a monster Pope John XII had the government of the Roman Church about the year 955. he was but 18 years old when he was made Pope Baronius speaks of that Pope with horror and execration and if you would know the particularities of the life of that Pope you are but to read Luitprandus (a) Lib. 6. cap. 11. Sygebert (b) An. 963. and Antonin (c) In his Cronicl Tom. 2. tract 16. §. 16. and you shall learn that that Pope was worse than a Turk or an Idolater he took Children to make them Bishops he conferred the Sacred Orders in a Stable he drank to the Devils good health his occupation all the day long was to spend the time in playing at Dice or other sorts of games and it was in those pastimes he used to call upon the name of Jupiter and Venus after which the death of that Pope was conformable enough to the life he had led for whilst he was in the middle of his dissolutenesses the Devil beat him so much that he dyed of it was not the Roman Church well grounded upon the Authority of such a Pope and is it not a thing well contrived to say that a Pope who calls upon the name of Devils enjoys an infallible Authority and that a Church which is grounded upon such an Authority is unable to receive or conceive any error We are but to read Platina Onnphrius and others who are Historians of the Roman Church to discover the wickednesses of the Popes Pope Boniface murthered (a) Baron an 985. two Popes to be their Successor in the Chair of Rome and Benedict IX who was but ten years old when he was made Pope by the faction of his Father lived a monstrous life all the while he sat in the Chair of Rome witnesses Baronius Platina and others There has been a time that they have seen three Popes at a time excommucating one another they have seen in that Chair Popes Murtherers Popes Adulterers Popes Sorcerers perjured persons simoniacal and full of all other crimes that can be imagined and to say that such Popes are infallible that they be governours of the Church of Christ truly if we speak strictly there is not an evident Metaphysical contradiction no more than there is an evident Metaphysical contradiction in saying that Jesus Christ might take even the Devils to make them the ordinary preachers of his Gospel and the Organs of the Holy Ghost and that he might chuse Sathan to make him the governor of his Church Nevertheless though those propositions contain not a strict impossibility yet we may say that they contain an infinite number of inconveniences and impossibilities in Morality and men can hardly believe that God almighty should have chosen Sathan among all his creatures to make him the governor of his Church I say the same of the Popes Men can hardly believe that God should have chosen the good friends of the Devil those creatures which the most moderate among the Papists call monsters to make them the Organs of the Holy Ghost and the Chiefs of the true Church Judge of the members by their Chief and enquire from those who have travelled into Italy what life lead the most part of the Cardinals and other Princes of that Church or else read what Honorius of Authun Sygebert and St. Bernard have written this is for corruption of manners §. 2. Some extreamly gross errors in the doctrine of Rome AS for the errors that are built upon those principles which I have rehearsed I should write a great volume if I should relate them all and shew that it is upon those principles that the discovery of a Purgatory the Doctrine of the Mass the Corruption and
Augmentation of the Sacraments of that Church the Ignorance of the Holy Scripture and the Invocation of Saints which in the Roman Church is gone as far as Idolatry are all grounded and lest some body should believe that I charge falsely the Church of Rome when I accuse it of Idolatry or lest some body should believe what the Papists use to say that it is but the common people that ground their hope upon the merits of the Saints and that the learned men who are lightned do not fall in so gross errors do but read the Psalter of the blessed Virgin Mary in the works of St. Bonaventure and you shall see that this Cardinal attributes to the blessed Virgin Mary all that which is attributed to God Almighty in Davids Psalmes and every where where the name of God should be he puts in the room the name of the Blessed Virgin pray can any thing be more impious and more wicked Neither can you say that that error is an error of a private man for I answer that it is a publick error in that Church and the error of the Church it self since in the book of the Mass upon St Nicolas's day (b) Decemb. 6. the Priest who says the Mass hath an order from the Church whereby he is engaged under the pain of a Mortal sin to pray God that by the merits and prayers of St. Nicolas they may be delivered from the fire of Hell Vt ejus precibus meritis à gehennae incendiis liberemur a Church which makes that prayer doth it not believe that it is by the prayers and merits of St. Nicolas that we are delivered from Hell and to believe that is it not to believe an horrible Impiety In the same book of Mass on the day (a) The 6th of July of St. Peter and St. Paul all the Roman Church prays to God that by the merits of these two Saints all men may obtain Eternal Glovy Vt amborum meritis aeternitatis gloriam consequamur then it is the errour of all the Roman Church and not of a private man to believe that it is by the merits of Saints we are to obtain eternal life And on the day (b) The 14 July of St. Bonaventure the Church of Rome prays God he would be pleased to absolve all men from their sins by the merits of that Saint ejus intercedentibus meritis ab omnibus nos absolve peccatis Now a Church which believes that it is by the merits of Saints that we are delivered from Hell that it is by the merits of Saints that we obtain eternal life that it is by the merits of Saints that our sins are forgiven is that a Christian Church could the Mahometans and Idolaters hold or think any thing more destructive of the merits and more opposite to the Glory of Jesus Christ could they invent an error more contrary to the truth of Christianity GENERAL CONCLUSION That I was engaged to go out of the Church of Rome whereof God Almighty made me know the errors by the degrees I have rehearsed in the two parts of this discourse AFter I had made that examination of the principles whereupon is grounded the Authority of the Roman Church after I had discovered the falsehood and the nullity of the reasons which she alledges to oblige the world to commit it self into her hands after I had found that Antiquity Multitude and Succession are not priviledges which the Church of Rome possesses above all other Churches after I had known that if the Church of Rome should enjoy all those priviledges above other Churches yet it would not be a good consequence from thence that it be the true Church and a Church freed from errors after I had discovered that all the infallibility of the Roman Church was grounded only upon the Authority of the Popes and that the greatness and Authority of the Popes was grounded but upon Ambition and Covetousness I understood that there was no other foundation of the true Religion but the word of God I acknowledged the truth of those Axiomes of St. Chrysostome (a) Homil. de Lazaro That the Ignorance of the Scripture procreates Heresies and that (b) Homilia 38. sup Joann the Scriptures bring us to God Almighty drive away Heresies and keep us from falling into error that thought imprinted it self upon my mind very strongly and made an end of scattering away the Clouds which Truth seemed to be wrapped in I knew manifestly that all points which are called Articles of Faith in the Roman Church but are not grounded upon the Scripture are indeed Articles of the Interest and of the Ambition of those who rule it and not Articles of Faith which are to be no other than Articles of the Word of God I understood well that that which was taught in that Church was the word of man not the word of God and that having no foundation in the Scripture they could not be sufficient Articles to oblige all men to believe them moreover in examining particularly and without preoccupation the Articles of Rome I knew them to be contrary to the Scripture so whereas at that time I acknowledged nothing but the word of God for the true rule of my Faith I concluded that all those Articles of Rome were so many errors and that having a natural obligation to forsake error assoon as we know it I was obliged to go out of the Roman Church to forsake altogether and faithfully all the errors which it stands for §. 1. The occasion of a Sermon about the Sacrament called again in my mind all the notions I had of the Errours of Rome THus I discussed the Articles of the Belief of Rome when the time of my obedience being finished I left the Monastery where I was near Saumur to come again to Paris there the F. Provincial who had disposed of his Secretary to send him to govern one of the Monasteries of our province spoke of making me his Secretary but the Divine Providence ordered it another way for the F. Provincial seeing that the F. General had taken upon himself all the care of our Province for the while he was to stay at Paris thought that it should be needless to take a Secretary that was the reason why he commanded me to go to preach at the Parish of Meudon which is a Borough six miles out of Paris That Place where God Almighty had begun some years before to lighten me with the light of his Truth seemed to me the place of all the world the most pleasing and the most well liked I preached every Sunday and every Holy-day which is kept by the Church of Rome till at last about the time that they Celebrate the days which are called Corpus-Christi-days being engaged to preach as I us'd to do I read again what I had written afore upon the matter of the Sacrament and I was troubled in reading what I had written What! said I must I abuse
Roman Church not to be grounded on the belief of the Primitive Church neither on the Authority of the Holy Fathers INTRODUCTION The Reading of the Books concerning the Perpetuity of Faith in the Eucharist was an occasion to me to examin in particular the belief of Rome about that matter THus the affairs of my Conversion depended when Providence that watched after the means to work out my safety brought forth an Occasion that did contribute very much to reduce all my Difficulties to the Question of the Authority of the Church of Rome to the end that this Authority being proved false the Doctrin of Rome which is grounded upon it might be presently destroyed It was in the Time when the Dispute of the Perpetuity of Faith concerning the Eucharist made a great Rumor in the World among learned Men. I read with as much application as I was capable of the Books and the Replies both of Mr. Claude and of Mr. Arnaud the Triumph of the Eucharist by Mr. Pavillon the Book of Father Noüet and the Book of the Testimony of our Senses in the Eucharist I do not intend to make my self an arbitrator to judge those rare men who are accounted without contradiction the most Witty and Learned of France Since I do but tell the History of my Conversion I do only rehearse the effects the Reading of those Books wrought in my Soul and I am not so unjust as to hinder the rest of the World to think what they please of those learned Mens writings and to judge them at liberty The reading of those Books brought me abundance of light in the Question of the Holy Sacrament I did consider the Argument of Perpetuity as an Argument which being not Metaphysical was to be reduced at last to a multitude of Probabilities from which one could never conclude any thing with necessity though he would suppose as true with Mr. Arnauld the Principle whereupon it is grounded to wit the Belief of all the Churches in the point of * Which in the Sence of the Roman Church is Transubstantiation reality All the Christian Churches saith Mr. Arnauld believe the real Presence therefore it was the belief of the Primitive Church for in a matter of so great Importance it is impossible there should have been made any alteration in Doctrin This Argument found I know not what repugnancy to be received in my mind for though I supposed the first Proposition to be true which since by the Study of the Histories and Relations of several Countries I acknowledge to be false yet I could not consent to the consequence because the proof of it was not true to my thinking and what endeavour soever of Rhetorick Mr. Arnauld Used to expound and sustain his Thought yet I did ever conceive that it was very likely some alteration had been made in the Doctrin of the Eucharist as well as in other Articles in which every body acknowledges there has been On the contrary I found Mr. Claude's Answer very reasonable This alteration has been made saith he therefore it is not impossible and his proof the Church of Rome doth believe the real Presence with Transubstantiation but they did not believe so in the Primitive Church therefore there has been made an alteration and afterwards he proves in his Book by the Authority of Authors who lived in that time that truly in the Primitive Church they did not believe the real Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament This Argument seemed to me very natural sincere and true the proof of it easie and well grounded But for that of Mr. Arnauld's it seemed to me rough uneasie intricate the proofs of it grounded upon suppositions in the Air which could not be reduced at last but to some appearances of truth proving nothing necessarily These Reasons incited me to judge in favour of Mr. Claude against Mr. Arnauld's Argument But though I was perswaded his Argument was not good yet I would not confess the Opinion he was for was not true May be said I Mr. Arnauld hath proceeded a little too far in a false proof and afterwards he hath been engaged for his honour sake to hold it earnestly But in fine Mr. Arnauld is but a private man the Church of Rome may disclaime his Argument and not hold with him So Mr. Arnauld's Reasons being false it doth not follow from thence that the belief of his Church is false since it could have other Proofs and other Reasons That was the cause why I resolved to examin the Question of the Eucharist for my own clearing and here is very near the Method I observed in it Division of the Errors of the Roman Church concerning the Matters of the Eucharist I supposed first as a principle which I received without examination that the Primitive Church was to be our Rule since that Church nearer to the Apostles and our Saviour Jesus Christ had the advantage to suck Truths out of their Source That being supposed I divided all that is to be said of the Eucharist in two parts First The Belief concerning the Sacrament Secondly The form of the Administration of it Since then said I the belief of the Council of (a) Consil Trid. sessi 33. Item sess 13. cap. 4. can 2. Trent touching the Eucharist is not to be found in the Scripture since the Form of Administrating the Sacrament in the Roman Church is so much different from that which is related by St. Paul in the First to the Corinthians chap. 11. and by the Evangelists we are to examin whether the Belief of Rome had not been the Belief of the Primitive Church and whether the Mass which is the Roman Form of Administring the Sacrament had not been instituted by the first Christians And whereas the Church of Rome believes the (b) Consil Trid. sess 33. sess 13. real Presence with (c) sess 13. cap. 4. can 2. Transubstantiation believes that the Mass is a propitiatory (d) Sess 22. cap. 1 2. can 1 2 3. Sacrifice both for the quick and for the dead believes that the Mass as it is now ordained by the Pope is the ancient Form of Celebrating the Eucharist I examined every one of those Questions Ch. 2. §. 1. and I found 1. That the Belief of Rome about Real Presence with Transubstantiation is a new Doctrin in the Church 2. That the Sacrifice of the Mass is contrary to the belief of the Primitive Church 3. That the manner of Celebrating the Eucharist is very much different and quite opposed to that which Christians were used to in the first Ages of the Church From whence I concluded that the Articles of Faith of Rome are not grounded upon the belief of the Primitive Church SECT I. The Belief of Rome about the real Presence with Transubstantiation is a new Doctrin in the Church I. First proof drawn out of the reasons wherewith the Fathers of the Church were used to dispute against the Heathens SEveral
should turn from these Vanities unto the living God But alass the things which they brought to do Sacrifice withal were only Oxen with Garlands And what you think would these Saints say if they were now upon the Earth and some body should come and tell them that in the Church of Rome the Priests do Sacrifice Jesus Christ to honour St. Barnabas and St. Paul Would not they be very angry with those new Sacrificers would not they rent their Cloaths would not they say to all the People of the Roman Church Sirs why do you these things we also are men like you it is not for our honour you must offer your Sacrifices it is for the honour of God's Majesty to whom only it is lawful to offer them I do believe if some of the Apostles or of the First Christians should rise again and appear in the Church of Rome they would have need to learn almost all their Catechism so great is the alteration of the Articles of Faith of the now Roman Church from those of the Primitive Sect. III. Ch. 2. §. 3. The Manner of Administring the Sacrament in the Roman Church is quite different and very much opposed to that which they used in the First Ages of the Church I. In the time of the Apostles and the First Ages of the Church they gave the Communion to all the People under Both Kinds they Worshipped not the Host nor celebrated the Holy Mysteries in an Unknown Tongue AS for the manner of celebrating the Eucharist it is easie to take notice of three great faults in that after which the Church of Rome celebrates it now The first is the Abridgement of the Cup. The second is the Adoration of the Sacrament The is the Unknown Language which they do use in the Church of Rome in the celebration of the Eucharist You may read over all the Scripture you shall never find that the Faithful were couzened of the Chalice of Christ's Blood you shall not find that the Christians are to Worship the Sacrament you shall not find that Christ or this Apostles in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries ever spoke in a Tongue Unknown to the People You may read all the Histories of the First Ages of the Church and the writings of the Fathers who lived in those Ages you shall never find the Abridgement of the Cup never the Adoration of the Eucharist never the Celebrating of the Holy Sacrament in an Unknown Tongue In the Apostles time when they Celebrated the Lord's Supper they added first nothing to the Institution of Christ but the Lord's Prayer and some time after three devout collects as it is manifest by the reading of Ancient Authors After the Apostles death the faithful People being gathered together upon a Sunday the Reader did read some Chapter out of the Scripture afterwards the Minister or the Bishop who did preside made an exhortation unto the People upon the Scripture that had been read and at the end of his exhortation he made his Prayer unto God After that the Faithful gave one to another the Kissing of Peace then they set upon the Communion Table Bread and Wine then the Pastor used the Prayers of Consecration and after the People had Answered Amen the Deacons took the Bread and Wine Sanctified through the Ministers Blessing and Prayers and divided it to all those which were present there Such was the Plainness of the first Christians in the Celebrating of this Holy Mystery and after the same manner they celebrated it 'till the year 150. that is to say about 70 years after the Apostles death as it is reported by Justin Martyr in his second Apologie near the end In this manner of celebrating the Holy Sacrament the faithful People received the Communion under both kinds the Language which was spoken was known of all the People since the answered Amen and it cannot be found that they worshipped the Sacrament We have seen afterwards in the Church several forms of Celebrating the Eucharist which have been called Liturgies We have seen the Liturgy of St. James the Liturgy of St. Clement the Liturgy of St. Matthew of St. Andrew of St. Chrysostom But alas What agreement is there betwixt those Liturgies and the Mass of Rome we do find indeed in those Liturgies some Prayers which are almost the same with them that are said in the Mass but we do not see in one of those Liturgies that it was forbidden to give the Cup to the People on the contrary we find there that all the Faithful did receive the Sacrament under both Kinds We know that the Language of those Liturgies was a Language understood among the people and we cannot see any where therein the least trace of the Adoration of the Sacrament There are some Authors who do not hold all those Liturgies as authentical neither as being written indeed by the Saints to whom they are attributed as (a) De Scrip-Ecclesi Bellarmin maintains who nevertheless is constrained to confess that an infinite multitude of Corruptions have slid into them They say that it is very likely that in the Year 325. the Fathers of the Council of Nice had not heard of that Liturgie which they say is St. Jame's or if they had heard of it they did not believe it true since in that Council there were so many Disputes and oppositions about establishing this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consubstantial which is to be found in that Liturgie They say that in the Year 431. in the Council of Ephesus the Fathers of the Church made no mention of that Liturgie neither of the Authority of the Apostle St. James to prove that the Blessed Virgin Mary was to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother of God This word being in the Liturgie of St. James it is not likely say they that the Fathers would have forgotten to use it as a proof against the Nestorians if they had believed that Liturgie to be an Authentical Book They say that in the same Liturgie mention is made of Incense which is offered which makes them believe that that Liturgie is not St. James's since in the times of the First Christians they offered not Incense in their Churches as it is manifest by (a) Lib. 6. 7. Arnobius They say the same of almost all the other Liturgies in that of St. Matthew mention is made of the Council of Nice of its Creed of the Council of Constantinople of the Council of Ephesus of Basil of Gregory who did live many Ages after the Death of St. Matthew That in the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom who liv'd in the end of the Fourth Age St. Chrysostom himself is named among the dead that we find therein the names of Sabas of Onuphrius of Anastasius of Athos and of some others who lived a great while after the death of St. Chrysostom All these reasons make them believe that either these Liturgies are counterfeited works and not the Authors to whom they
are attributed or that they have been thereafter increased adulterated and filled with Corruptions But let it be what it could these Liturgies though corrupted are nevertheless works of Antiquity and since many of the Authors of the Roman Church hold them all authentical we may rightly urge those works against them to make them to acknowledge that in the time those Liturgies were written the manner of administring the Eucharist was entirely different from that of the Church of Rome in the abridgement of the Cup in the worshipping of the Host and in Celebrating in an unknown Tongue which is a strong Proof against the novelty of the now Roman Church II. The beginning of all the Errors of the Roman Church in the administration of the Sacrament BUt without farther insisting upon Proofs which may be said to be negative only which nevertheless are of great weight and have almost the force of a Demonstration in Questions wherein one Sect is accused of Innovation it is very easie to produce positive Proofs to shew the Novelty of those Errors since we know the time when they were brought into the World and that we know their beginning and their Authors 1. The beginning of the abridgement of the Cup. We know by (a) Consult de utraque spec pag. 1025. Cassander's report that the Eastern Church has always given the Communion under both kinds to every one of the Faithful and that even in the Roman Church the custom of distributing to every body the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament did last more than a Thousand years the erroneous custom of Abridging the Cup of Christ's Blood to all the People was born in the Council of Constance in the 13. Session wherein the Council after having acknowledge that it was the custom of the Primitive Church to communicate under both kinds established as a Law the custom of taking away from the People a part of the Sacrament and declared hereticks those who say That it is an error to withstand the custom of the Primitive Church the Example and Institution of CHrist and the Commandement to which he has boud us upon ternal Damnation viz. the Commandement of Drinking of the Chalice of his Blood This is will some say a very strange Doctrine that a Council notwithstanding the Custom of the Primitive Church Christ's Example and the Commandement he has injoyned unto all the Faithful should dare forbid all Priests to give the Communion under both kinds and would have it be an heresie to obey our Lord Jesus Christ to be conformed to his Example and to follow the practice of the Saints who lived in the primitive Church This is a very Churlish and ungentile manner of dealing But what Reasons had that Council to forbid to administer the Communion under both kinds Are ye curious to know them I have learnt them of Chancellour * Tract contr Haeres de Cons. sub utraque specie Gerson 1. The Mens Beards which grow on their Lips 2. The loathsomness which one should have to drink after others 3. The costliness and difficulty of getting Wine 4. The inconveniencie of Frosts in Winter 5. The importunity of Flies in Summer 6. The trouble that the Deacons should have to bring Wine to the Faithful 7. The danger of spilling 8. And the Peoples unworthiness to equal Priests in receiving the Sacrament if he received it under both kinds These are the Reasons of great moment which have obliged that Council to withstand so directly the Institution of Christ and the holy Custom of all the Primitive Church Truly are these Reasons sufficient to abolish so express a Commandement which Christ has injoyned to all the Faithful to drink his Blood Are there some new inconveniencies which have happened since to alter the Form in which Christ has instituted the Sacrament Had not Men their Beards in the time of Christ Was there no body to be found in the Apostles time 'till the Council of Constance who had loathsomness to drink after others Is Wine dearer now in France Italy and Spain than it was then in Syria Graecia jerusalem and Constantinople Did not Wine freeze before the Council of Constance Is it but since that time Flies have vexed the People in Summer Are the trouble of the Deacons and the danger of spilling wine such things as Christ had not foreseen And are the Priests of the Roman Church more elevated in Dignity than Christ himself was and his Apostles that there should be need to set betwixt them and the People a difference which was never set betwixt Christ and his Apostles betwixt the Apostles and the rest of the Faithful 2. The Beginning of the Worshipping of the Host As for the worshipping of the Host not only we do not find that Christ or his Apostles ever worshipped the Sacrament or that this was the use of the first Faithful not only we do not find in all these Lyturgies whereof I have spoken any footstep of that worshipping But furtheremore we do know all the degrees whereby this Errour fair and softly slid into the World We know that it was Pope Innocent III. who first commanded that some Boxes should be kept in the Church wherein the consecrated Host should be conserved That it was Peope Honorius III. about the Year 1220 who renewed that Decree with this new Addition that upon those Boxes these words should be written Hìc Deum adora Here adore God and that the same Pope ordained that the Host should be Elevated We know it was Pope Gregory IX who added to that Elevation the Sound of a little Bell about the Year 1230. And in fine we know that it was Innocent IV. who ordained that the Host should be worshipped These are the degrees whereby that Error has been established in the Roman Church And if you would know what Engins they have used to give Authority unto that Worshipping you are but to read Platina and the * Ad Evam reclusam data apud Vrb Vet. 6. Id. Sept. An. Pontif. 3. Bull of Pope Urban IV. directed to a Nun called Eve and you shall see that about the ear 1264 this Pope Instituted the Feast which is called Corpus-Christi-Day upon the Revelation and the Request of that Nun to whom he sent the Book of the Office of the Sacrament which is said to have been framed by Thomas Aquinas We know that afterwards Pope Clement V. in the Council of Vienna ordained that this Festival Day should be kept by all those of the Roman Church And that about the Year 1360 they began at Pavie to make Processions and Tabernacles which was afterwards observed in all Towns that submitted to the Popes Authority Before the time that the Roman Church had corrupted the Word of God the Christians did receive the Sacrament with devotion with zeal and an holy greediness it was with a joy which cannot be expressed that they met in the Churches to participate of the true Body and true Blood
of Christ jesus There was before the Table of the Communion a great Curtain like to that Vail which was in the old time before the (a) Exod. 26.33 Ark of the Testimony and when the Curtain was drawn to set open to the sight of the People the Holy Mysteries the Faithful imagained they saw the Heavens opened as (b) Homil. 3. sup Epist ad Ephes St. Chrysostome speaks they consider'd the Table of Communion as an Altar imbrued all over with Christ's Blood they came to the Sacred Table with an holy horrour and a trembling like to that of Moses when he came nigh to the bush out of the midst whereof God spake with him they were all penetrated throughout with the light of their Faith and they breathed nothing but Fire of Charity which consumend them And in this manner they came near our Lord J. Christ to eat his own Body and to drink his own Blood they regarded the Minister who divided to them the Bread and the Wine of the Holy Sacrament as a Seraphin who was to put upon their tongues a coal of fire to quicken them with the Love of God and the Spirit of Christ But if somebody in that time should have worshipped the Sacr ament in stead of worshipping Christ who is received in the Sacrament he would have been lookt upon as an Idolater he would have been rejected out of the Church and dealt with as an Heretick or else they would have taught him that it is a dreadful Error to worship the Sacrament as if Bread and Wine were transubstantiated into Christ's Body and Blood and that the Faith of the True Church and of all the Saints is to believe That by the means of the Holy Sacr ament we are truly and really partakers of the true Body and of the true Blood of Christ who is in Heaven settled at the Right Hand of God his Father where we worship Him in receiving the Sacrament 3. The Beginning of the Celebration of the Eucharist in an unknown Tongue Now for the third Error which is to be found in the Roman Church in the Administration of the Sacrament we know that it is but fince the Popes have made themselves Soveraigns since they have raised themselves to be Arbitrators of Crowns since they took upon them to depose Kings from their Thrones and usurped that Temporal Power which they now injoy We know that it is but since that time that they have endeavoured as by Right of Conquest to oblige all Nations to speak the Roman Language as a Mark of their Bondage to the Pope following the Example of the old Roman Emperors who after they had reduced several Provinces and Nations under their Jurisdiction constrained them to speak the Roman language That Tyranny of constraining the People to celebrate the holiest of our Mysteries in a Tongue which they understand not is a thing so evidently contrary to that which the Holy Ghost teaches us in the * 1 Cor. 14.16 Scripture that almost all the Christian Churches which have received from the Apostles their Belief and the Form of Celebrating the Eucharist do celebrate it unto this day in the Vulgar Tongue of the Countries whereof they are Inhabitants The Greeks have their Lyturgy in their own Tongue as every one knows the Christians of Moscovia who received of the Apostle St. Andrew the Faith of Christianity have their Lyturgy in the (a) Guagn de Relig. Moscov pag. 250. Slavonian tongue which is the vulgar Tongue of the Country they inhabit The Armenians converted for the most part by S. Bartholomew speak their (b) Cassander Lyturg. cap. 13. pag. 31. own Tongue in the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries The Jacobites who dwell in Syria speak 9c) Brerewood pag. 194. Syriack in celebrating the Eucharist The Abissine Christians celebrate the Divine Service and the Communion in the (d) Chytraeus pag. 28. Tongue of their Country Which makes me believe that all Christian Nations conformed themselves to the practice of the primitive Church and that they have wel perceived the Holy Ghost frobid the celebration of these holy Mysteries which consist in Blessings and Thanksgivings in an unknown Tongue to which the Unlearned could not answer Amen CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST PART The Articles of the Roman Church cannot be proved either by the Practice of the Primitive Church or by the Authority of the Ancient Fathers ALl those Reflexions which I made for my own particular Instruction and Edification brought a great Light into my Soul and overthrew in part the false principles wherewith the Errors of the Roman Church are ordinarily intricated and darkened First I began to mistrust that Church and then afterwards to draw some Consequences against the Errors thereof I thought since it is a thing very natural to mistrust one in all his Conduct after we have once surprised him in a Dault that after having discovered the Errors of the Roman Church concerning the Question of the Eucharist I might reasonably mistrust it in all the other Articles of Faith of which it makes a particular profession and so I saw nothing sure nothing fast in the Church of Rome I believed I might justly mistrust that this Church had done in the Doctrine of Indulgences Purgatory Prayer for the Dead and Invocation of Saints the same that it has done in that of Transubstantiation Reality and Sacrifice of the Mass that is to say I feared they were Articles which had been framed against the Doctrine of the Ancient Church the Testimony of the Holy Fathers and the Authority of the Word of God Moreover I thought that having remarked the Errors of Rome in the chief and most holy of all the Mysteries of Christianity I was not obliged to examine the other Articles and that that only was enough to make me suppose that it had erred in all the other Points of its Doctrine and that one must consequently forsake its Communion if he doth desire to be saved The desire of my Salvation was a desire which Grace had rooted very profoundly in my Soul but the thought of forsaking the Communion of a Church within which I had been brought up was a thought very contrary to my natural Inclinations I could not blind my self from seeing the Errors of Rome but I had not yet strength enough generously to forsake them to the peril of whatsoever could happen The Reasons which made me understand my Errors came every day to present themselves to my mind with some new Lights and Evidences The Church of Rome hereupon I look'd before as if it had been encompassed round about with the Truths of the Scripture grounded upon the Authority of the Saints of the Primitive Church appeared to me at that time bared of all those fine Testimonies But at last the same Pretence which caused me to defer my conversion when the Grace of God had made me understand that the Romish Faith was not grounded upon the Word of God
with more maturity the reasons whereupon I was perswaded to hold that the Pope was infallible Alas said I all the reason the Monks have to refuse to obey the Bishops is because the Pope has held them excused from their jurisdiction what then could the Pope release Children from obeying their Fathers could he release Servants from their duty to their Masters can he free men from obedience to their Superiours can he take away the Sheep out of the conduct of their Pastors without exposing the flock to the fierceness of the Monks from the natural jurisdiction of the Bishops so that all the order of the Church shall not be overthrown and disturb'd with inevitable confusion Doth not one see every day the effects of those dispensations which are altogether the effects of that mighty power which is attributed to the Pope If a Bishop comes to make his visitation in some Churches belonging to the Monks they shut the door against him to the scandal of all the people If the matter comes into some of the Monk's Churches to perform therein some Ecclesiastical Functions there must be a great fighting before as it happened about 6 years ago with the Priests of St. Roch by the Capucin Nun's Church at Paris at the Burials of Madame la Duchesse de Vandôme they use the handles of Crosses instead of Halberds they fight with Links and Candle-sticks they burn the Surplesses of the Priests they rent their Ornaments in fine the strongest beat down the others some lose there their square Caps some their Hats and of an action which should be to replenish all the assistants with thoughts of death of eternity of the judgments of God they make it a Buffoonry a Puppet's fighting an action so ridiculous that the most serious can hardly forbear to burst with laughing a jeasting which is the subject of I know not how many Satyres and mock Poems so far that they must make of each side some verbal reports and obtain from the King an express inhibition to hinder the people from making Ballads thereupon and enterludes to make the people laugh at it on the Theaters of the King 's or the Duke's Play-houses These tragical and scandalous consequences which are the effects of the power of the Pope in the Roman Church freeted me and went against my mind which was the cause that I resolved to examine again whether that Authority which is given to the Pope was grounded upon some reasonable principles and to examine it if it was possible without any prejudice for my own instruction and to establish solidly the grounds of my Religion but God Almighty whose judgments are impenetrable permitted that the resolution I took was crossed again for some while The Curates of the Diocess of Sens at that time were to meet every month in the Synod where in my Lord Archbishop presided and there give their answers and opinions upon the Canonical and Ecclesiastical questions which had been propounded in the precedent meeting many of those Gentlemen who thought I had a peculiar knowledge of the Ecclesiastial History and of the Canons of the Church came to me and desired me to explain the propositions to which they were to answer in the next Conference and give them the resolutions and the proofs of them and so whereas I gave them every month their Conferences in writing that employed me wholly and gave me no other leasure during six or seven months but to study hard the Holy Fathers writings the Pope's decretals and the other Books of the Canons which I could find in the Monastery that I lived in 3. Circumstances wherewith I began to examine the Authority of the Roman Church and what is my design in the rehearsal of them AT last the divine providence furnished me with an opportunity which set me in a condition to give my self to the inquiry I intended to make I went with the obedience of our General to live in a Monastery which is called Font-Evrald by the River of Loire about nine miles from Saumur there I had the leasure to examine throughly the question of the Authority of the Roman Church and of the infallibility of the Pope which was the only principle which kept me in the Roman Church every thing did contribute to my design the solitude and the commodity of a fine and great library which I had at hand gave me all the facility that could be to give my self to that examination and I was no great while before I had acquaintance with one of the most learned men of that province who is Mr. Prior Pavilion who among the Books he has written made an answer to Mr Claude Minister of Charanton concerning the matter of the Eucharist I took an extream delight to converse with him and he took the pains as to come almost every day from about a mile off to the place where I dwelt and there we passed all the day long in Conferences and disputes upon matters of Religion it was with all those advantages having the convenience to learn the thoughts and to weigh the reasons of the learned men both of the quick and the dead that I examined that question whereupon depended my Religion and consequently my Salvation It would be a very hard matter to rehearse here all the questions which I thought to have some connection with that that I had proposed to examine and which I thought were either the principles or the consequences thereof and I should be tedious if I should rehearse here the thoughts of all the Authors I read upon that matter the reasons I examined in their principles and in their sources and the difficulties which I unwrapped in fine what I read what I wrote and what I thought during the space of almost one year Since I do intend here but to tell the faithful the means which God Almighty has used to draw me out of the captivity of the Roman Church and to make me one of his Church which professes to follow the purity of his word I will relate here only the motives which made at that time a mighty impression in my mind which were like Celestial influences of grace which ruled my conversion and my design in all this discourse is no other but to entice the holy and faithful people to praise God and to give thanks to his majesty for the marvellous things he works inlightening with his divine lights those who walk in the wandering of the truth and in being merciful even to those who seek after pretences to remain in their errors CHAPTER I. Chapt. I. The pretended grounds of the Authority of the Roman Church I Did understand well that there was in the world a true manner of worshiping God and I supposed as a principle not to be contested received of all those to whom God has given reason to govern themselves that the true manner of worshipping God was that which had been instituted by Christ but forasmuch as all the
and must confess that they did wrong when they excommunicated it and that the Church of England is infallible and has the true Faith since in it they do conserve from Bishop to Bishop from the times of the Apostles a right Succession in all the Ecclesiastical powers But it is not upon Succession only that churches are to ground the Doctrines they profess the Reformed Churches are very willing to be examined after the very rule of the Gospel and do not defend a false principle by antiquity as those of the Roman Church do CONCLVSION That it is the Succession of the true Doctrine from the Apostles which is an Infallible mark of the true Church and that the Church of Rome which hath the Succession of Doctrine hath no reason to boast neither of its Antiquity nor of its Multitude nor Succession IT is true that the Fathers used the Argument of the Succession against the Hereticks Tertullian (a) De praescrip cap. 32. urged it against those of his time Optatus (b) Lib. 2 3. against the Donatists Augustin against the Manichees the Arians and the Pelagians but lest you should be mistaken do but read exactly those Fathers and you shall find that with the Succession of Churches and Bishops they required a Succession of Doctrine which Tertullian calls a Consanguinity and an affinity of Doctrine to prove they were the true Church which St. Augustin said it was impossible to prove throughly but by the Scripture Let them produce said Tertullian (c) De praescr cap. 32. the beginning of their Churches let them shew us the order and the succession of their Bishops from the beginning and at last bring forth some of the Apostles or some instructed by the Apostles who were Authors of their Churches c. But though they should have dispatched that step though they should have devised some Catalogue of Succession yet they should not have got very much by that for their Doctrines compared with that of the Apostles will make it appear by they diversity and the contrariety there is betwixt them that neither the Apostles nor those who have been instructed by them were the Authors of their Churches even saith he they shall be condemned by those Churches which though they have not for their Author neither one of the Apostles nor one instructed by them immediately as being erected after the time of the Apostles begun in our days are nevertheless Apostolical because of the Consanguinity of the Doctrine they teach which is the same with that which was taught by the Apostles And St. Gregory of Nazianze (d) In laud. Athan. shews that the succession is to be esteemed by Piety sooner than by Seat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he who professes the true faith is partaker of the same Seat he who doth the contrary though he doth sit in the same seat is an enemy directly opposed to that Chair which he sits on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Succession of the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be esteemed the true Succession for it hath the truth of it whereas the other hath but the appearance thereof Thus you see that even by the testimonies of the Fathers To be a true Church it is not enough to have the Succession of the same Chair and the Succession of the Bishops which the Roman Church boast of upon all occasions since one may shew a long Catalogue of Succession and be an Heretick for all that as you see by Tertullian his Testimony since one may sit upon the same Chair which was Catholick heretofore and for all that be the sworn enemy of that Chair as it is manifest by the testimony of St. Gregory of Nazianze but a Church ought to have the Succession of the Faith the Succession of the Piety and shew as Tertullian speaks a Consanguinity of Doctrine Consanguinitatem Doctrinae and this the Church of Rome doth not boast of at all since it cannot abide that we should speak of examining its doctrine by the word of God and of comparing it with the Faith of the Primitive Church with the belief of the Apostles Let not therefore the Church of Rome boast that it hath possessed almost all the finest Churches in the world the Arians have possessed them as well as they and St. Hierome for all that calls them Hereticks The Church saith that Father (a) In Psal 133. consisteth not in walls and buildings but in the truth of the Doctrine the Church is where the true Faith is 't is not above 15 or 20 years past since the Hereticks possessed all these buildings even all these glorious Churches but in that time the Church was there where the true Faith was Ecclesia autem ibi vera erat ubi fides erat Could not we have said the same in this Kingdom 'T is not above 120 or 160 years past before the time of Henry the 8th and Queen Elizabeth when the Papists possessed all these buildings even all these Churches but in that time the true Church was there where the true faith was Ecclesia autem ibi vera erat ubi fides erat Do not let them say that the Pope hath succeeded St. Peter for we will answer that Nero was Successor of Augustus and notwithstanding Nero was a Tyrant Augustus was a good Prince we will answer that the King Manasses succeeded Ezechias and yet for all that Manasses was a wicked King Ezechias was a Saint In fine we will say that the Arian Bishops had succeeded the Catholicks that the impious Nestorius was the right Successor of St. Andrew in the Chair of Constantinople that the famous Heretick Paul of Samosate was the right Successor of St. Peter in the Church of Antioch and that all those as well as the Popes have succeeded others who had ruled before them but as the night succedes the day sickness good health death life CHAPTER II. The true Grounds of the now Roman Church Chap. 2. AS soon as I had overthrown those three false imaginations of Antiquity Multitude and Succession wherewith they used to cloak the Errors of the Church of Rome it was very easie to know the true grounds and foundations whereupon it is built and those grounds being neither the Authority of the Scripture nor the Doctrine of the Primitive Church nor Antiquity nor the Concurrence of the Multitude nor the Succession of Churches or Bishops I knew aftere a diligent examination that they could not be other than the Ambition and Covetousness of those who govern it and it is from thence that all the corruptions and all the errors of that Church have proceeded SECTION I. The Ambition of the Popes §. 1. The Pope exalts himself above all Kings whereas by right he ought to be submitted to them POpe Gregory the 7th in a Synod held at Rome in the year 1076. established 27 Propositions upon which is grounded all the greatness of Rome which are called the Dictatorship of the
Pope and which are to be seen in Baronius (a) An. 1076. Num. 31 32 c. Among them the following propositions are to be found Princes are to kiss the Popes feet It is lawful for the Pope to depose Emperours and to absolve their subjects from their fidelity and the obedience which they owe their natural Lords and Superiours 'T is to establish these fine Propositions that Pope Innocent the 3d witness Durandus (a) Lib. 1. myster cap. 5. compareth the Pope with the Arke of the Covenant and saith that the Cardinal Deacons have the care of carrying the Pope upon their shoulders because in the Old Testament it was the duty of the Levites to carry the Ark of the Lord. 'T is for this reason that in the publick Processions which are made at Rome they carry the Pope and the Sacrament yet with such difference that the Sacrament which in the opinion of Rome is transubstantiated into the body of Christ is tyed upon the back of a Mule whilest the Pope is carried with Magnificence by the Princes or the Kings who are present there or else by their Ambassadors if the Kings be not present according as it it written in the (b) Lib. 2. sect 2. cap. 3. Book of their Ceremonies It was to put in practice the Maximes of deposing Kings and absolving their subjects from the obedience they owe them that Pope Gregory the 7th deposed Henry the 4th Emperour and Boleslaus the 2d King of Poland that Pope Zacharias deposed Chilperick King of France absolved the French from the fidelity they owed their natural King and put Pepine into his place that Boniface the 8th deposed Philip le Bell King of France and excommunicated him in that decretal which begins (c) Extravagant de majorit obedi Vnam sanctam Ecclesiam In which the Pope himself declares That it is of necessity to Salvation for every humane creature to be subjected to the Pope of Rome that Innocent III. deposed the Emperour Otho IV. Innocent IV. deposEd the Emperour Frederick II. Julius II. took away the Kingdom of Navarre from its natural King to give it to the King of Spain In fine it was to maintain all these ambitious Maximes that about the year 1200 Pope Innocent III. who deposed the Emperour Otho deposed also King John of England declared him to have lost the right to his Kingdom absolved his subjects from the Oath of Allegiance caused Divine Service to cease throughout all the Kingdom and Churches and Church-yards to be shut up which continued by the space (d) Mat. Paris of six years and a half excommunicated the King and gave the Kingdom of England to Philip Augustus King of France upon condition to conquer it at his own peril and fortune in short it was to maintain those principles that Paul III. excommunicated Henry VIII King of England and Pius V. Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory Whereas by right (e) King James in his premonition to all Christ Monar pag. 23. Christian Emperours are the Lords and the Superiours of the Popes even the Popes have acknowledged themselves their subjects and vassals and that they were to honour and obey the Emperours as their Lords and their Masters as it is to be seen by the Letters of Gregory the great and other Bishops of Rome to the Emperours in whose time they lived The Roman Emperours used to Elect the Popes and make Laws which were to be observed by the Roman Seat it was from the Emperours all the Bishops and Archbishops of Rome were to receive their Investiture and it was to the Emperours the Popes themselves were forced to pay a certain sum of mony to be confirmed in the Papacy witness Igebert and Luitprand with other Popish Historians The Emperors deposed the Popes as relateth King James the Emperor Otho deposed Pope John XII for diverse crimes and vices especially of Lechery the Emperour Henry III. in a very short time deposed three Popes to wit Benedict IX Silvester III. and Gregory VI. both because of their Covetousness and because they abused their Authority against Kings and Princes In fine all the Church-men and the Pope himself with them is subject to Kings who are immediately under God Supreme Governours of the Church since the Apostle (f) Ad Rom. 13.1 saith Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers c. Do but read the Comments of the Fathers upon that verse and they will teach you that Ministers Bishops and High-priests are not excused from that upon any terms St. Chrysostome (a) Homil. 23. super epist ad Rom. maintains that the greatest Bishops are not exempted from the jurisdiction of Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And afterwards Should you be an Apostle saith he should you be an Evangelist or a Prophet no body is exempted from the Kings Jurisdiction Theodoret St. Bernard and the others hold the same Is the Pope more than a Prophet is he more than an Evangelist is he more than an Apostle to rise above bove all the Kings of the earth and not only deny to them his obedience but furthermore to take upon him to rule and dispose of their Estates to depose and excommunicate the Kings themselves and to Commission the subjects to rebel against their natural Princes § 2. The Pope exalts himself above all Churches taking unjustly to himself the titel of Universal Bishop That it is a Blasphemy and an Apostasie in Christendome to take upon him such a title ANother of those 27 Propositions which do compose the Dictatorship of the Pope is this that the Bishop of Rome is to be called Universal Bishop where you may see the monstrous ambition of that man who is called the Pope who after he hath elevated his power above the Majesty of all Kings would rise above all his fellows and above all Churches 'T was in prosecution of this Maxime that in the 4th Council of Carthage three Bishops of Rome one after another after having falsified the decree of the first Council of Nice produced the Articles of the Council of Sardis pretending that one might appeal from other Bishops to the Bishop of Rome but the Fathers of that Council having had recouse unto the originals and known by that means the foul-play of the Bishops of Rome made a decree quite contrary to that exorbitant Authority that the Bishops of Rome would have taken upon themselves Truely there is nothing so ill grounded as that Primacy and that Title of Vniversal Bishop which the Popes challenge to themselves neither Peter nor any of the Apostles ever took upon themselves such title or jurisdiction and though they observed among the Apostles and in the Primitive Church the order of first and second c. yet such an order was never for the destruction of the Authority of the other Apostles or Bishops since among the Apostles St. Peter who was the first presided not in the Council of Jerusalem but St. James who
was Bishop of the place where that Council was held since according to the Authority of the Chancellour (b) Tom. 4. in propos utilibus ad exterminat schismatis Gerson in the Apostles times four Councils were held where St. Peter was not present now it is a principle in the Doctrine of Rome that the title of Universal Bishop gives one the right of presiding in all Councils from whence the consequence is manifest As for the times which have followed those of the Apostles we know that the Popes have not always presided in all general Councils and that the only thought of being elevated above other Bishops and stiled UniversAl was an abomination among all the Antients and a thing lookt upon as an Apostasie and a monstrous error proceeding from the bottom of Hell to plant Impiety and Idolatrie in the middle of the Temple of God About the end of the fifth Age about the year 600. John Patriarch of Constantinople would have challenged to himself the title of Universal Bishop and was in that enterprise supported by the favour of the Emperor Mauricius at the novelty of that monstrous title all Christendom was stricken with horror Pope Gregory the Great stirred up with the zeal of the honour of God withstands vigorously the establishment of that new title he writes to Eulogius Patriarch of Alexandria and to Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch (a) Epist 36. Never a one of my predecessors saith he has been willing to consent to a title so profane as that of universal Bishop challenging to himself the primacy over the other God forbid that Christian minds should ever be infected with such an opinion as to believe that there may be in the world some Bishop who could by right take to himself the title of Universal And in another (b) Epist 24. lib. 6. epistle to the same Without speaking saith he of the wrong which is done to you if some body be called Vniversal Bishop this Vniversal Bishop being faln all the Vniversal Church must need fall to the ground together with him and what madness saith he what levity is it to run after such a Doctrine To the Emperor Mauricius (c) Epist 32. lib. 4. he protests that it is not for his own particular interest that he withsTands that pretended Primacy of the Bishop of Constantinople he makes him understand that it is the business of all the Church that such a title is contrary to the ordinances of the Gospel to the Holy Canons of the Church and that it is an usurpation Nunquid ego in hac re piissime domine propriam causam defendo c. Causam Vniversalis Ecclesiae ago c. That such a title is new in the Church never one of my predecessors saith he again has been willing to consent to that title of singularity lest other Bishops should be thereby deprived of the honour which is owing to them and in another Epistle (d) Epist 30. lib. 4. to the same Emperour he doth openly declare that if any Bishop desires to be called Universal Bishop he is the forerunner of the Antichrist In fine he writes to the Bishop of Constantinople himself he prays him he beseeches him he exhorts him not to consent to that title full of error of ambition and madness he saies that it is a temptation of the Devil of which he must beware and that to consent to receive so mischievous a title is nothing else but to lose the Faith and to become an Apostate from Christianity But alas those words full of zeal and truth were the last words of the true Roman Church that Church ceased with Gregory the Great and there succeeded in its place a corrupted Roman Church whose Bishop challenged to himself that monstrous name full of Blasphemy and Apostasie which his predecessor withstood so generously The Emperour Mauricius was murthered by Phocas Phocas usurped the Empire and made himself a Tyrant and to have some prop for his tyranny he gave Boniface III. to make him his creature the title of Universal Bishop and that title which the Bishop of Rome thus usurped was established by degrees fair and softly by the Pope's cunning tricks so that about the year 642. they began in the superscription of Letters whcih were written to the Pope Theodorus to set these words which are related by Sygebertus in his Chronciles To the holy Father of Fathers and Soveraign Prelate of Prelates c. Against that monstrous name full of Blasphemy and Apostasie the Churches of Greece of Dacia and Illyrium made opposition and the Kingdoms of France Spain and England were a long while afore they could abide that huge and heavy burthen of the Popes dominion and submit themselves to that primacy and universality of the Roman Bishop This is the story and the progress of that primacy and it is upon that title of Universal Bishop and sovereign Prelate that the Church of Rome asserts the Pope to be infallible that it is by his judgment that the other Bishops must be governed and likewise on the contrary that there is none upon earth capable of redressing what the Pope has once ordained as it is written in one of those 27 Propositions in which consists the Dictatorship of the Pope § 3. That the Ambition of the Popes extends it felf as far as Impiety YOU would imagine that proposition to be a Paradox viz. That the Roman religion is grounded upon Impiety since there is nothing more contrary to Religion than Impiety but as much paradox as it is it is very true for all that or if one of the members of that Proposition is to be destroyed to hinder it from being a Paradox we are to say that the Romish is not a Religion As for the other member of the proposition to wit that it is grounded upon Impiety nothing is more true and more easie to to be proved The Church of Rome is all grounded upon the Authority of the Popes now the Authority of the Popes is injurious unto God's Majesty it doth establish a manifest Impiety therefore it is evident that the Religigion or the Church of Rome is grounded upon Impiety To prove the 2d Proposition of that argument I have nothing else to do but to shew that the Popes challenge to themselves the power of dispensing with the Gospel and the commandments of God and after they have taken to themselves a power as mighty as that of God Almighty they had the temerity to take also to themselves the same titles that we use to attribute only to God or to Jesus Christ our Saviour 1. The Pope takes to himself as great an Authority as that of God Almighty ACcording to the Maxime of Optatus (a) Lib. 3. That there is none but God about Kings and Emperours that he who exalts himself above those anointed of God raises himself above all men and makes himself equal with God Cum super Imperatorem non sit nisi solus
be possible that God should ask of me an account of the Salvation of those men who will stubbornly follow errors and who are all disposed to tear me in pieces if I dare publish the truth Am I better than I know not how many learned men who live in France who know wery well the errors of Rome who notwithstanding continue in the communion of that Church Am I better than a great many Doctors of Sorbon who are perswaded that the Church of Rome is fallen into a multitude of Errors and Corruptions even as many of them have often declared to their friends Am I better than several Bishops and Archbishops of France who suppose themselves equal in every thing to the Bishop of Rome who do not repute his decrees to be of an infallible determination In fine am I better than all those Gentlemen who compose that famous Society of Jansenists who are almost all the most learned writers the rarest men and most witty in all that kingdom Am I better said I than all those excellent men who are accounted even among the Papists as if they were perswaded of all the truths of the Protestant Church whom the Papists themselves accuse as if they intended to establish the purity of the Gospel to abolish those pretended Sacraments newly found out by the Church of Rome who are lookt upon as if they intended to introduce into that kingdom prayers in a vulgar tongue overthrow the Superstitions of the Mass and destroy the obligation of the secret confession unto a Priest For those Gentlemen for all that they know evidently the errors of Rome do not forbear to say the Mass to preach to write Books even in the matter of the Eucharist for the very doctrine of Rome to administer the Sacraments after the form of that Church and more than that they Dedicate their Books to the Pope himself to dazle the people and to make as if they would have acknowledged his jurisdiction and his Authority If so be that all those excellent and learned men do dissemble may not I dissemble withy them If they do deceive the people may not I deceive them also and perform but outwardly all the functions they expect of me §. 4. God makes me understand how great sin it is to withstand the Holy Ghost anâ—â—â—â—so makes an end of my conversion and brings me out of the Communion of Rome THese thoughts brought me into such a condition that I was very near staying still in the Roman Church the mind which one may have to live in quietness and security in the middle of his friends and kinsmen among a people of whom he is almost worshipped was a mighty prejudice which hindred me from discovering the error and falsehood of all those considerations But at last the grace of God did perform its uttermost endeavour to take me out I understood that God is Truth and that lying and dissimulation have no other Father than the Devil What! shall I spend all my life in seducing the people in perswading them what I do not believe my self Alas those good people will think that I speak from my heart that I preach the will of God that I declare to them his heavenly orders and I all the while should be but the instrument of the Devil those who have no convenient time nor opportunity to instruct themselves in the Holy Writings because they are treasures which the Pope has hidden from them will come to me to take advice upon their doubts I shall perceive sometimes in those innocent souls the rayes of Grace which is pleased to work sometimes mightily in the simplest Consciences as the Sun on the untilled lands shall I then withstand the Spirit of God deceive the ignorant with a lye coloured with several Sophismes to suffocate springing truths which Grace would have produced shall I say that God doth speak this when God doth not speak it and should not I be the most wicked in the world to abuse thus and deceive men who should come to me with so much of innocency and sincerity The examples of all those learned men whom I proposed to my self just now signifies nothing to answer at the great tribunal of God's severe Justice their sins will not be an excuse for me I thought then I heard all the maledictions (a) Jerem. 14.15 Ezech. 23.6 which God has pronounced against the false Prophets who seduced his people And what doth a Priest who says the Mass in the Roman Church and who is fully perswaded of the truth of the word of God doth he not cause the people to believe that there is no bread in the Sacrament that the bread is Transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ is not such a Priest guilty before God of all the Idolatries of the people and of all their errors c Those last hindrances being overthrown after Grace had overcome the shifts which my natural inclinations had before devised I took the resolution to forsake entirely the Church of Rome and to retire into some country where I might freely and publickly make profession of the purity of the Gospel I did very well foresee that I was to bid an everlasting farewell to all the satisfactions of this world to take my leave of all the delights and recreations of the earth and wait for nothing but crosses troubles sorrows and all kind of persecution from the Enemies of the Gospel I did foresee that I undertook the greatest and most important business of all my life but the hope of my eternal Salvation quickned me and the inward comfort I felt in following the light of the Spirit of God made me undergo all kinds of troubles and difficulties Thus I went out of the Church of Rome these are the means wherewith God Almighty has been pleased to work my conversion such has been the goodness of God towards me this is the fulness of his abundant mercies not only he made me understand my errors lightned my mind with the marvellous light of his Holy Word but furthermore he drew me out of those errors by the Almighty strength of his arm and brought me into a land full of light and truth a Church which is Jesus Christ's peculiar kingdom where we disown detest and abhor those impious and pernicious errors of the Church of Rome those doctrines which are destructive of true Christianity The God of all mercies keep us in this Holy faith and call home such as are willfully or ignorantly gone astray and give them grace to receive the love of the truth that the number of those whom he has chosen from the beginning may increase more and more to the Honor and Glory of his most Holy Name Amen FINIS
put his hand upon (a) Mar. 8.24 he did see truly but yet he was not able to distinguish Men from Tree the Word of God had restored my Eyes but they were but weak and subject to a great many dimnesses it was need to have some time to strengthen me in the Truth which I had but a glimpse of and to take away the Ignorance of Divinity under the pretences of which the Devil would cloak the Word of God Therefore the Divine Providence that took care for my Conduct disposed all things to hasten my Conversion it brought to pass several incidents which the Profane would call chance but the Saints stile The hand of the Lord. First I was destinated for the study of Divinity four years before all my Companions let the Flatterers and Profane say what they please those who judge holily of things that come to pass understand very well that the design of the Lord in that was no other but to take away as soon as it could be the fair Pretences wherewith Error would have offuscated Truth Secondly the Lord permitted I should come to an able man learned in Divinity both Scholastical and Positive perfect in Right Canon which is the Decrees of Fathers Councils and Popes in a word a man who was marvellous in Study of Controversies and in every thing which can contribute to make an absolute Divine But He permitted also that there might be in so excellent a man the fair Dealing and the Sincerity of a Child that was the reason that some Years after when he had known the Truth of God and the Errors of Rome because he knew not how to disguise Truth he published it every where he could not forbear to say that Indulgences Purgatory and the Obligations of Believing the Articles of Faith of the Pope and of keeping his Commandements upon â—ain of a mortal Sin were so many â—rafty Tricks of Rome to get Money He could not forbear to tell every Body the Mysteries the Factions the Impostures of the most part of those last Councils which are accounted General and Oecumenical by the Church of Rome he defended generously all the Truths which we profess in the Church of England wherefore he drew upon himself all the Persecutions he suffered for Truth so that afterward he died a Martyr for the Gospel by the severity of the Laws of Rome Oh! had he been in the time that I conversed with him as much lightned as he has been since he had saved me many troubles and perplexities he had doubtless delivered me out of that Suspension of Spirit whereunto I was reduced by the subtilty of his Answers and the height of his Resolutions But in that time the Lod did but begin his Conversion as well as mine and lighten us both by degrees yet with these two differences First the Lord destinated him to suffer all kinds of Persecutions to make him a Witness of his Holy Word a Martyr of the Gospel and he has not yet judged me worthy of Persecutions nor of Martyrdom Secondly he would have him raised up to the number of those great Saints whom the World afflicts and torments Ch. 1. §. 4. (a) Heb. 11.38 Of whom the World is not worthy Therefore the Lord ravished betimes that innocent Soul in the liveliness of his Years and speedily was he taken away (b) Wisd 4.11 as saith Solomon Lest Wickedness should alter his Understanding or deceit beguile his Soul Whereas the Divine Justice has looked upon me as a grievous Offendor who am suffered to live that I might Mourn and Weep longer for my Sons §. 4. The Conclusions of this Chapter How I came to know that the Articles of faith of Rome cannot be proved by Scripture IT was under the Conduct of that learned and holy Man that I began to give my self to the Study of Divinity I read what Authors do write concerning those Questions but specially and more exactly concerning the Questions which are controverted which are for the most part the Doctrines the Church of Rome hath received out of pride and covetousness without any ground in the Scripture I found in those Questions several difficulties I came to propound them to my Master there is said he what Bellarmin Answers there is for this matter the Exposition of Cardinal du Perron there is what Bonaventure what Thomas Aquinas what Scotus what Suarez what Valentia what Boivin what Herincx what others say touching that difficulty But when I asked him Tell me I beseech you freely what do you think He Answered me almost to every one of those Questions To tell you the truth said he the Doctrin of Purgatory of Indulgences of Worshiping Images and Reliques the Doctrin of Transubstantiation c. I do not find all these Doctrins very evident in the Scripture I do not see neither how they can be drawn very directly out of those places of the Bible th Authors of Rome are wont to produce to prove them by I give them you said he only to alledge to those who would have a place of the Bible he brought forth in every matter to have some pretence to say seasonably or unseasonably the Scripture speaks of that Matter and to content the Hereticks But to speak plainly I do sincerely confess it is not the Scripture which obliges or perswades me to believe all those Articles but the true and the only reason why I do hold them is because the Church teaches them so There are said I in self at once a great many difficulties abridged it is a great deal more just and more reasonable to deal after this manner than to consume all our brain to find in the Scripture with great pains of false discoursing what the Holy Ghost had never intention to teach therein Let us acknowledge then freely that all the Articles of the Faith of Rome are not in the Scripture nor grounded upon any thing else but upon the Authority of the Church After that all these difficulties may be very easily resolved All the business will be but to know whether or no I am obliged to believe as an Article of Faith what the Roman Church teaches without any ground from the Scripture This was the pass to which I was reduced to this I thought all the Theologie of Rome was to be reduced I did but loose my labour in consulting other Professors of Divinity in Conferring with those Friends of mine who were some Bachelors some Licentiates some Doctos of Sorbon and Curates of some chief Parishes in Paris They spoke but Gibbrish or some Latin words contrary to the good common Secne and Reason when they would have grounded the Doctrin of the Church of Rome upon the Scriptures and they never spake with reason but when at last they reduced themselves as to a Principle to the infallible definitive and final Judgement of the said Church in such matters CHAP. II. Chap. 2. How I understood the Articles of Faith of the