those that looked for him and there was not between them one moments Interruption that People were dispersed over all the Earth the Gentiles ceased not to gather together and that Church which Jesus Christ hath built upon a Rock not all the Powers of Hell have ever been able to overthrow O what Consolation is this to the Children of God! But what Conviction is here of the Truth when they see that Pope Innocent the Eleventh who now most deservedly fills the first See of the Church we are continually ascending without any interruption even to St. Peter made by Jesus Christ the Chief of the Apostles from whence by running back to the Priests that served under the Law we go up even to Aaron and Moses from them to the Patriarchs and so to the beginning of the World what Course what Tradition what marvellous Connexion and Chain is here If our Minds which are naturally uncertain and by their doubtfulness become the Shittlecock of their own Reasonings have need in the Questions which concern our Salvation to be fixed and determined by some certain Authority what greater Authority is there than this of the Catholick Church which reunites in her self all the Authority of passed Ages and the ancient Traditions of Mankind to its first Original Thus the Society which Jesus Christ looked for during all past Ages at last founded upon the Rock and where St. Peter and his Successors were to preside by his Orders justified it self by its own Course and bore in its eternal duration the Character of the Hand of God 'T is also this Succession that no Heresie no Sect no other Society than only the Church of God was able to give to it self The false Religions could imitate the Church in many things and especially in saying as she did that God founded them but that Discourse in their Mouth was only a Discourse in the Air. For if God hath created Mankind and if in creating him after his own Image he hath never disdained to instruct him how to serve and please him Every Sect that doth not shew its Succession from the beginning of the World is not of God Here fall prostrate at the feet of the Church all the Societies and all the Sects that men have set up both within and without Christianity As for Example The false Prophet of the Arabians had the cunning to say that he was sent from God and after he had deceived the People most grosly ignorant he knew how to make his advantage of the Divisions of his Neighbourhood to extend into it by force of Arms a Religion that was wholly Sensual but neither has he dared to suppose that he was the Saviour expected nor could he in short give either to his Person or to his Religion any real or apparent Unity with past Ages The expedient he found to free himself from that was new For fear lest they should search into the Scriptures of the Christians for Testimonies of his Mission like to those which Jesus Christ found in the Scriptures of the Jews he pretended that both the Christians and the Jews had falsified all their Books His ignorant Followers believed him on his own word six hundred years after Jesus Christ and he declared himself not only without any precedent witness but also without any attempt either of supposing or of promising any one sensible Miracle which might authorize his Mission either by himself or any of his Followers So likewise the Heresiarchs who have founded new Sects among the Christians have had the Art to make the Faith more easy by denying the Mysteries which passed our Senses They were able to dazle men by their Eloquence and by a seeming shew of Piety to move them by their Passions to ingage them by their Interests to gain 'em over by Novelty and Libertinism either by that of the Mind or else by that of their Senses In a word they could easily either deceive themselves or deceive others for there is nothing more Humane but besides that they could never boast they had done any Miracle in Publick nor reduce their Religion to positive Facts whereof their Followers were Witnesses there was always a most unhappy mischief attended them which they could never conceal and that was their Novelty It will always be visible to the eyes of the whole World that they and their Sect which they have established will be detached from that great Body and from that ancient Church which Jesus Christ has founded where St. Peter and his Successors have kept the Primacy in which all Sects have found themselves established The moment of the Separation will be always so apparent that the Hereticks themselves can never be able to deny it and they will never dare so much as to attempt to make themselves to come from the Source by an uninterrupted Succession This is the inevitable weakness of all the Sects which Mankind has set up None can change the Ages past nor give themselves Predecessors nor ever make them to be found in possession The only Catholick Church fills up all precedent Ages by a Course of Succession that can never be disputed with her The Law came before the Gospel the Succession of Moses and the Patriarchs makes but one and the same with that of Jesus Christ to be looked for to come to be acknowledged by a Posterity which is to last as long as the World this is the Character of the Messiah in whom we believe Jesus Christ the same yesterday Heb. 13.8 and to day and for ever Thus besides the advantage which the Church of Jesus Christ hath of being alone founded on miraculous and divine Facts which they have written for all to see without any fear of being falsified as to the time in which they happened there is likewise in favour of those who lived not in those Times one Miracle that always is subsisting which confirms the truth of all the rest that is the Course of Religion which hath been always victorious over the Errors that have crept in which indeavour to destroy it You may add to this also another Chain and that is the visible uninterruptedness of a continual Punishment upon the Jews who have not yet received Christ so long ago promised to their Fathers They nevertheless expect him still and this their expectation which is always frustrated is one part of their Punishment They expect him and discover in their Expectation that he hath always been expected Condemned therefore by their own Books they confirm the truth of Religion they as I may say do carry all the Course of it written on their Foreheads and at one view we see what they have been why they are as we see them and for what they are reserved Thus four or five Authentick Facts and those more clear than the light of the Sun do discover our Religion to be as old as the World And consequently they discover that it hath no other Author than He who made the World
its first Rise that is to say Palestine Syria Aegypt lesser Asia and Greece but also in the West besides Italy the several Nations of the Gaules all the Spanish Provinces Africa Germany Great Britain in those Places that were impenetrable to the Roman Arms and also out of the Empire Armenia Persia the Indies the greatest Barbarians the Sarmatians the Dacians the Scythians the Moores the Getulians and even to the most unknown Islands The Blood of the Martyrs rendered it fruitful Under Trajan Saint Ignatius the Bishop Years of J. C. 107 of Antiochus was exposed to wild Beasts Marcus Aurelius unhappily prepossessed with the Calumnies wherewith Christianity was charged caused to be put to Death Saint Years of J. C. 163 Justin the Philosopher and the Apologist Years of J. C. 167 for the Christian Religion St. Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna St. John's Disciple about fourscore Years of Age was condemned to the Flames under the same Prince The holy Martyrs of Lyon and Vienna suffered unheard of Punishments following the Example of St. Photin their Bishop of ninety Years of J. C. 177 Years of Age. The Gallican Churâ—h fill'd all the World with its Fame and Glory Years of J. C. 202 St. Ireneus the Disciple of St. Polycarpus and St. Photin's Successor imitated his Predeccessor and dyed a Martyr under Severus with a great Number of the Fideles Faithful of his Church sometimes the Years of J. C. 174 Persecution a little slackened At a time when there was an extream want of Water which Marcus Aurelius suffered in Germany there was a Christian Legion obtained such a Showre as was enough to quench the Thirst of all his Army and it was so followed with Thunder that it frightned all his Enemies The name of Thunderstriking was given or rather confirmed to that Legion by this Miracle The Emperor was so concern'd at it that he writ to the Senate in Favour of the Christians At last the Southsayers Persuasions were to attribute to their Gods and to their Prayers a Miracle which the Heathens never thought so much as to desire Other Causes suspended or slackened the Persecution for a little while but Superstition a Vice which Marcus Aurelius had not the Power to resist the common Hatred and the Calumnies that were cast upon the Christians quickly prevailed again The Fury and Rage of the Heathens was re-kindled and the whole Empire did as it were swim in the Blood of Martyrs Still their Doctrine went on and attended their Sufferings In Severus his time and some while after Tertullian Priest of Carthage illuminated the Church by his Writings defended it by a most admirable Apologism and left it at last being blinded by an haughty Severity and seduced by the Visions of the false Prophet Montanus Some time but not long after Clemens Alexandrinus indeavoured to pull up the Antiquities of Heathenism by the Roots that so he might utterly put an end to them Origen the Son of the Holy Martyr Leonidas made himself famous throughout all the Church even from his most tender Years and taught great Truths though they were mixt with several Errors The Philosopher Ammonius joined the Platonick Philosophy to Religion and gained to himself the Respect of the Heathens In the mean while the Valentinians the Gnosticks and the other impious Sects set up their false Traditions against the Gospel Iren. lib. iii. 1. 2 3. De prasc adv Har. c. 36. St. Ireneus opposed the Tradition and the Authority of the Apostolick Churches to theirs especially that of Rome founded upon the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Tertullian did the same The Church is not shaken neither by Heresies nor by Schisms nor by the Fall of our most eminent Doctors The Holiness of her Conduct is so clear and perspicuous that she forces even her Enemies to break forth into Praises of her The Affairs of the Empire are imbroyled Years of J. C. 235 in a terrible manner After the Death of Alexander the Tyrant Maximinus that had killed him made himself Master though he was of Gothick Race The Senate set up four Emperors against him who died all within less than two Years Among them Years of J. C. 236 were the two Gordians the Father and Son Years of J. C. 237 the Darlings of the Roman People The Years of J. C. 238 young Gordian their Son although he was extreamly young yet shewed the Wisdom of a gained Experience and defended with great Difficulty against the Persians the Empire weakned by those manifold Divisions He had regained from them several very important Places But Philip Arabius killed Years of J. C. 242 this good Prince and for fear lest he Years of J. C. 244 should be utterly undone by the two Emperors Years of J. C. 245 whom the Senate chose one after the other he clapt up a dishonourable Peace with Sapor King of Persia He was the first of the Romans that had by Treaty parted with any Lands of the Empire 'T is said He embraced the Christian Religion and at such a time when on the sudden he had got the better and indeed he was favourable to the Christians In hatred to this Emperor Euseb l. 6. c. 39. Decius who slew him renewed the Persecution with more of Violence than ever The Church increased on all sides principally among Years of J. C. 249 the Gaules and the Empire soon lost Decius Greg. Tur. l. 1. Hist. franc 28. who with gret Resolution and Vigour Years of J. C. 251 defended it Gallus and Volusian went Years of J. C. 254 quickly after and Emilius was but just seen as it were The Soveraign Power was given to Valerianus and that Venerable old Man ascended to it through all the Dignities He was only Cruel to the Christians Under Years of J. C. 257 him Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian Years of J. C. 258 Bishop of Carthage notwithstanding all their Disputes which yet broke not off their Correspondence received both of them the same Crown St. Cyprian's Error which rejected Baptism given by the Hereticks neither hurt him nor the Church The Tradition of the Holy See supported it self by its own Force against the specious Arguments and against the Authority of so great a Man although there were other very great Men that defended the same Doctrine Another Dispute did more Mischief Sabellius Years of J. C. 257 confounded together the three Persons in the Divinity and acknowledged in God but one single Person under three Names This Novelty astonished the Church Euseb Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 6. and St. Denys Bishop of Alexandria discovered to Pope Sixtus II. the Errors of this arch-Heretick This Pope Years of J. C. 259 quickly followed the Martyr St. Stephen his Predecessor He was beheaded and left a very great Contest to be maintained by his Deacon St. Laurence Then was it that the Years of J. C. 258. 259. Iâ—undation of the Barbarians began to appear Years of J. C. 260 The Burguignions and the
Constantine assembled at Nice in Years of J. C. 315 Bythinia the first General Council where Years of J. C. 324 318 Bishops who represented all the Church Years of J. C. 325 condemned the Priest Arius that was an utter Enemy to the Divinity of Christ and there they made the Creed where the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established The Priests of the Roman Church sent by Pope St. Sylvester preceded all the Bishops of that Assembly and an Antient Greek Author mentions among the Legates of the Holy See Gel. Cyric Hist. Conc. Nic. lib. ii 6. 27. the Famous Osiâ—s Bishop of Cordoüa who was President of that Council Constantine took his Seat there and received their Decisions as an Oracle from Heaven The Arians concealed their Errors and by their dissimulations recovered his good Favour Whilst that his valour kept the Empire in Soveraign Tranquillity Years of J. C. 320 the Quiet of his Family was disturbed by the Artifices of Fausta his Wife Crispus the Son of Constantine but by another marriage being accused by this his Step-mother for offering to violate her had the misfortune was to find his Father inflexible But his death was quickly revenged Fausta convicted was suffocated in the Bath But Constantine though he was dishonoured by the malice of his Wife yet at the same time received a great deal of Honour by the Piety of his Mother She discovered among the Ruins of the Old Jerusalem the True Cross that has been so fruitful in working of Miracles The Holy Sepulchre was likewise found The New City of Jerusalem which Adrian had caused to be built The place where our Saviour of the World was born and all the other holy Places were adorned with stately Temples by Helena and Constantine Four Years of J. C. 330 years after the Emperor rebuilt Bysantium which he called Constantinople and made it to be the second Seat of the Empire The peaceable Church under Constantine was miserably afflicted in Persia An infinite number of Years of J. C. 336 Martyrs there did signalize their Faith The Emperor in vain endeavoured to qualify Sapor and to bring him over to Christianity Constantine's Protection gave to the persecuted Christians a very favourable retreat Years of J. C. 337 That Prince blessed by all the Church departed this Life full of Joy and hope after he had shared the Empire amongst his three Sons Constantine Constantius and Constans But that Agreement was quickly troubled Constantine dyed in the War he had with his Brother Constance for the Limits of the Years of J. C. 340 Empire Constantius and Constance were not much longer united Constance held the Nicene Faith which Constantius opposed Then the Church admired the long and wonderful Sufferings of St. Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria and the defender of the Nicene Council Being driven from his See by Years of J. C. 341 Constantius Soc. Hist. Eccl. ii 15. Sozom. iii. 8. he was canonically re-invested by Pope St. Julius the first whose Decree Constance ratifyed and confirmed That good Prince lived not long The Tyrant Magnentius traiterously killed him but Years of J. C. 350 soon after conquered by Constantius he killed Years of J. C. 351 himself In the Battle where his Affairs were utterly quashed and ruined Valentiâ—s the Arrian Bishop secretly being advertised Years of J. C. 353 by his Friends assured Constantius that the Tyrant's Army was upon it's flight and made the weak Emperor to believe that this he knew by Revelation Upon this false Report Constantius delivers himself to the Arrians The Orthodox Bishops are banished from their Sees the whole Church is filled with confusion and trouble the constancy of Pop Liberius is overcome by the vexations of the exile torments force the Aged Osius Years of J. C. 357 to faint who was before the support and bulwark of the Church The Council of Rimini so strong at first no longer could hold out but yields by surprise and violence Nothing is done according to order and method The Emperor's Authority is now the only Law But the Arrians who did all by that means could not agree amongst themselves but were every day changing their Creed That of Nice continued St. Athanasius and St. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers it 's chief Defenders made themselves famous over all the Earth whilst the Emperor Constantius was so wholly taken up about the affairs of Arianism that he was carelâ—ss and negligent of those of the Empire the Persians got very considerable Advantages The Years of J. C. 357. 358. Germans and the Francs attempted on all Years of J. C. 359 parts to bring in the Gauls Julian one of the Emperâ—rs Kinsmen hindred them and beat them The Emperor himself defeated the Samatü and went against the Persians There began the Revolt of Julian against the Emperor his Apostasy the Death of Years of J. C. 360 Constantius the Reign of Julian his equitable Years of J. C. 361 Government and the new kind of Persecution which he brought upon the Church He made divisions in it he excluded the Christians not only from all manner of Honours but even from their Studies and in imitation of the Holy Discipline of the Church he thought to turn his own Arms against it Punishments were managed and appointed under other Pretences Years of J. C. 363 than that of Religion The Christians remained faithful to the Emperor but the Glory which he too earnestly sought destroyed him He was slain in Persia where he had too rashly and precipitately engaged himself Jovianus his Successor a zealous Christian sound things very sad and desperate and only lived to conclude a shameful Years of J. C. 364 and dishonourable Peace After him Valentinian made War like a mighty Captain he brought up his Son Gratianus to it very young kept up the Military Discipline beat the Barbanians fortified the Fronners of the Empire and protected the Nicene Faith in the West Valentius his Brother whom he made his Collegue persecuted it in the East and not being able to gain over nor to crush St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzen he despaired of ever being able to conquer it There were some Arrians that joyned new Errors to the antient Dâ—gmata and precepts of their Sect. Aëâ—â—us an Arrian Priest is taken notice of in the Writings of the Fathers as the Author of a new Heresie Epiph. har 75. Aug. haer 53. for having equalized the Priesthood to the Episcopacy and for adjudging the Prayers and Oblations which the whole Church used to put up for the Dead to be unavailable and insignificant A third Error of this Grand Heretic was his reckoning among the Servitudes of the Law the keeping of certain appointed Fasts and for this being of opinion that Fasts should be always free and voluntary He lived when St. Epiphanius made himself so famous by his History of Heresies where he among the rest is refuted St. Martin Years of J. C. 375 was made Bishop of Tours
Constantinople and continued at Nice The Pope sent his Legates thither The Council of the Iconoclasts was condemned They are detested a Persons who led by the Example of the Saracens accused the Christians of Idolatry It was decreed that Images should be worshipped in Remembrance and for the Love of those whom they represented which is called in the Council a relative Worship and an honorary Adoration and Salutation opposed to the supreme worship and Adoration of Latria or entire Subjection which the Council reserved to God alone Besides the Legates of the Holy See and the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople there appeared there the Legates of other Patriarchal Sees which were then oppressed by the Infidels Some disputed their Mission with them but that which was not at all contested was that far from disavowing them all the Sees accepted of the Council without shewing any Contradiction and it was received by all the Church The French encompassed with Idolaters or new Christians whose Ideas they were afraid to meddle with and on the other hand being harrassed with the equivocal Term of Adoration hesitated a long while Amongst all the Images they would only pay an Honour to that of the Cross absolutely different from the Figures which the Heathen believed were full of the Divinity They kept however in an honourable place and also in their Churches the other Images and hated the Iconoclasts What other Difference there was it made no Schism The French owned at last that the Nicene Fathers required to Images but the same kind of Worship all Proportions observed as they themselves paid to Relicks to the Book of the Gospel and to the Cross and that Council was honoured by all professing Christianity under the Name of the seventh general Council Thus have we seen the seven general Councils which the East and the West the Greek and the Latin Churches received with an equal Reverence The Emperors convoked those great Assemblies by the Soveraign Authority they had over all the Bishops or at least over the Chief on whom the rest depended and who were then Subject of the Empire The publick Carriages were provided by the Order of the Princes They assembled the Councils in the East where they made their Residence and they commonly sent thither their Commissaries to keep the Peace The Bishops so assembled brought with them the Authority of the Holy Ghost and the Tradition of the Churches From the beginning of Christianity there were three principal Sees which had the precedency of all others that of Rome that of Alexandria and that of Antioch Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Conc. C. P. 1. Can. 3. Conc. Chalced. Can. 21. The Nicene Council allowed the Bishop of the Holy City to have the first place The second and the fourth Council raised the See of Constantinople and would have that the second So that there were five Sees which afterwards were called Patriarchal The Precedency was given to them in the Council Among those Sees the See of Rome was always look'd on as the first and the Council of Nice regulated the others upon that Conc. Nic. Can. 6. There were also Metropolitan Bishops who were the Chiefs of the Provinces and who went before the other Bishops It was very late ere they began to be called Archbishops but their Authority was never the less When the Council was formed the Holy Scriptures were propounded the Passages of the antient Fathers Witnesses of Tradition were read It was Tradition which interpreted Scripture They believed its true Sence was that which the past Ages had owned it to be and none thought they ought to explain it otherwise Those who refused to submit to the Decisions of the Council were cursed with the Anathema After they had explained the Faith they regulated the Ecclesiastical Discipline and made Canons that is to say the Rules of the Church They thought the Faith did never change and tho' the Discipline might receive several Changes according to difference of Times and Places yet as much as possibly we can we ought to labour after a perfect imitation of Antiquity But the Popes were only there by their Legates in the first general Councils but they did however expresly approve of the Doctrine and there was but one Faith in the Church Constantine and Irene religiously executed Years of J. C. 787 the Decrees of the VII Council but the rest of their Conduct was intolerable The young Prince whom his Mother had persuaded to marry a Lady he could by no means love gave up himself to reproachful Applications and being weary of paying any longer a blind Obedience to the Imperiousness of his Mother he indeavoured to remove her from the Affairs which hitherto she had managed in spight of him Alphonso Years of J. C. 793 the Chaste reigned in Spain The perpetual Continence of that Prince deservedly conferred on him that famous Sirname and rend'red him worthy to release Spain from that infamous Tax of a hundred Maids which his Uncle Mauregate had granted to the Moores Seventy thousand of those Infidels slain in a Battle with Mugait their General signalized the Valor of Alphonsus Constantine did also indeavour to make himself famous against the Bulgari but the Success did by no means answer his Expectations He at last brought down all Irene's Power and being unable to govern himself as much as to suffer the Empire of another he repudiated his Wife Maria to marry Theodote who Years of J. C. 795 was one of her Maids of Honour His Years of J. C. 796 incensed Mother heightened the Troubles Years of J. C. 797 which were caused by so great a Scandal Constantine fell by her Artifices She gained the People again to her by lessening their Taxes and brought the Monks and the Clergy into her Interest by a shew of a visible Piety At length she was proclaimed sole Empress The Romans scorned her Government and so went over to Charlemagne who subdued the Saxons repressed the Saracens destroyed the Heresies protected the Popes drew over the Infidel Nations to Christianity re-established the Sciences and Ecclesiastical Discipline assembled famous Councils wherein his profound Learning was admired and the effects of his Piety and Justice was not only felt in France and Italy but it extended it self into Spain England and Germany and indeed where not To conclude in the DCCC XII Epoeha Charlemagne Or the re-establishment of the new Empire Year of our Lord that great Protector of Rome and of Italy or to speak more properly of all the Church and of all Christendome was chosen Emperor by the Romans without his ever dreaming of it and Crowned by Pope Leo III. who had engaged the People of Rome to that Choice became the Founder of the New Empire and of the temporal Greatness of the Holy See The End of the first Part. TO THE Dauphin YOVR Highness sees the twelve Epocha's which I have followed in this Abridgment I have chained to each of them the
paid to him Porphyry said so expresly and what is that else but to abolish all Religion and to leave him wholly without Worship whom however we acknowledge to be the God of Gods But what then were those Sacrifices which the Gentiles offered in all the Temples Porphyry had found out the secret of them There were Porphyr 2. de abstin Lab. aapud Aug. 8. de Civ 13. says he impure Spirits Deceivers Evil doers who through an extravagant Pride would needs be accounted as Gods and would make themselves be worshipped by men It was convenient to gratifie them for fear they should do us any hurt Some more gay and jolly were wroâ—ght upon by Speâ—tacles and Plays the more melancholy and reserved Humours of others were pleased with fat Odours and delighted in bloody Sacrifices What does it signifie to refuse these Absurdities there was so much that the Christians gained their cause This was certain that all the Gods to whom the Gentiles offered up Sacrifices were Evil Spirits whose Pride attributed the Godhead to themselves so that Idolatry to look upon it in it self seemed only to be the effect of a brutish Ignorance but to come up to the Source and Original of it it was a work brought from far driven on to the last Excesses by malicious Spirits 'T was what the Christians had always pretended what the Gospel had taught and what the Psalâ—ist so truly sang in these words Psal 96.5 for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made in Heavens And behâ—ld here the strange blindness of Mankind Idolatry tho' it was reduced to extremity and confounded by it self yet it was kept up in the World It was only to cloath it with some probability and explain it in words which carried a sound with them that charmed the ear and was enough to captivate the mind Porphyry was admired Jamblicus his follower was esteemed as a man divine because he had the art of wrapping up the Sentiments of his Master in terms that were seemingly very mysterious tho' in truth they were of no weight at all Julian the Apostate as cunning as he was was taken by those appearances which the Heathens themselves relate Enchantments whether true or false which the Philosophers boasted of their ill-understood Austerity their ridiculous Abstinence which even made it a crime to eat living Creatures Ennap Maxim Oribas Chrysanth Ep. Jul. ad Jamb Am. Marcell l. 21 23 25. their superstitious Purifications in a word their Contemplation which evaporated it self in vain thoughts and Chimâ—ra's and their words as little weighty as they seemed pompous and swelling put the cheat upon the World But yet I do not speak the bottom of all The holiness of the Christians behaviour the contempt of the Pleasures that it commanded and what is yet more than all the Humility which made up as it were the whole of the Christian Life these things offended Mankind and if we can comprehend it Pride Sensuality and Libertinism were the only Guards and Defences of Idolatry The Church was every day pulling it up by the Roots by her Doctrine but yet more by her Patience Yet those wicked Spirits who were never weary of deceiving men and who had plunged them into Idolatry were not now forgetful of their Malice They started up those Heresies in the Church which you have heard of The curious and inquisitive men and by that means vain and fickle and lovers of novelty would fain get to themselves a name among the faithful and could not be contented with that sober and temperate Wisdom which the Apostle had so much recommended to the Christians They launched too deep into those Mysteries which they pretended to measure out to our weak conceptions New Philosophers that mingled Humane Reasonings with Faith and undertook to lessen the difficulties of Christianity being able to digest all that folly which the World found in the Gospel Thus successively and with a kind of Method were all the Articles of our Faith assaulted the Creation the Law of Moses a necessary Foundation of ours the Divinity of Jesus Christ his Incarnation his Grace his Sacraments in short every thing occasioned matters for those scandalous Divisions Orig. lib. 5. cont Cels Celsus and others reproached us for them Idolatry seemed to ride in triumph It looked on Christianity as a new Sect of Philosophy which had the fate of all others and like them dwindled away of it self into several other Sects The Church seemed to them but a Humane Work that was ready to fall of it self And they concluded that it was not necessary in matters of Religion to refine more than our Ancestors nor to attempt to change the World In this Confusion of Sects which boasted themselves to be Christians God wanted not his Church He knew how to preserve to it a Character of Authority which Heresies were not able to master It was Catholick and Universal it continued throughout all times and extended it self on all sides Jer. 3.1 2 3 4. Tertul. de Carn Ch. 2. de praescrip 20 21 32. 36. It was Apostolick the Progress Succession the Chair of Unity and Primitive Authority belonged to it All those who had forsaken it first had acknowledged it and could not efface the Character of their Novelty nor that of their Rebellion The Heathens themselves looked on it as that which was the Stem the whole from whence all the parcels were detached the ever-living Trunk which the loâ—â— off Branches however left entire Celsus who reproached the Christians for their divisions into so many Schismatical Churches which he saw rise up yet observed one Church distinct from all the rest and always stronger which he also called for that reason the great Church There are some Orig. lib. 1. says he among the Christians who do not acknowledge the Creator nor the Traditions of the Jews meaning the Marcionites but goes he on the great Church receives them In the trouble which Paul of Samosata stirred up the Emperour Aurelian easily knew which was the true Christian Church to which belonged the House of the Church Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 30. either because it was the place of Prayer or else the House of the Bishop He adjudged it to those who were in Communion with the Bishops of Italy and that of Rome because he always saw the Gross of Christians in that Communion When the Emperour Constance embroyled all in the Church the Confusion he made in it by protecting the Arrians could not keep Ammianus Marcellinus as much a Heathen as he was from confessing that that Emperour strayed out of the right way of the Christian Religion Am. Marcel l. 21. simple and particular by it self both in his Dogmata and Conduct And it was because the true Church had a Majesty and a Right which the Heresies could neither imitate nor obscure but on the contrary they bore testimony to the Catholick Church tho' at the same time
promised Land and others those when they were re-established by visible Miracles To convince the incredulity of a People who were wholly devoted to their Senses God took a long extent of Ages in which he distributed his Miracles and his Prophets that so he might often renew the sensible Testimonies by which he attested his holy Truths In the New Testament he tooks another conduct He would no more reveal any thing anew to his Church after Jesus Christ In him was perfection and fulness and all the Divine Books that have been composed in the New Testament were made in the times of the Apostles That is to say that the Testimony of Jesus Christ and of those whom Jesus Christ hath been pleased to choose for the Witnesses of his Resurrection hath been sufficient for the Christian Church All that has come since has edified it but it has not been looked upon as purely inspired by God but what the Apostles have written or what they have confirmed by their Authority But in that difference which is found between the Books of the two Testaments God hath always observed that admirable order of making things to be written just at the times when they happened or at least when the memory of them was very fresh And so those that knew them wrote them those that knew them received the Books which bore witness of them and both the one and the other have left them to their Posterity as a most precious and invaluable Inheritance and they most carefully and piously have preserved them And thus was formed the Body of the Holy Scriptures as well the Old as the New Testament Scriptures which from their Original have been regarded as true in the whole as given by God himself and which have been also kept with that great Religion that it was thought none could dare to alter the least Letter of it without a strange Impiety And thus it was that they came down to us always holy always sacred always inviolable the one kept by the constant Tradition of the Jews and the other by the Tradition of the Christians so much the more certain as it was confirmed by the Blood and Martyrdom as well of those who wrote those Divine Books as of them that received ' em St. Austin and the other Fathers demand upon whose Faith we attribute the profane Books to certain Times and Authors Aug. cont Faust 11. 2. 32. 21. 33. 6. Every one readily answers that the Books are distinguished by the different Relations they have to the Laws Customs and Histories of a certain Time by the Stile it self which bears impressed the Character of particular Ages and Authors and more than all that Iren. 1.2.17 Tertul. adv Marc. 4. l. 4 5. Aug. de utilit ced 3. 17. cont Faust Manich. 22. 79. 28. 4. 32. 33. Cont. adv leg Porph. 1. 20. c. by the publick Faith and by a constant Tradition All these things concur to the establishment of the Divine Books to distinguish the Times and to mark out the Authors of them and the more Religion there was in preserving them entire the more indisputable is the Tradition which preserved them for us Thus hat it been always acknowledged not only by the Orthodox but also by Hereticks and even by Infidels Moses has ever passed in all the East and afterwards in all the World for the Legislator of the Jews and for being the Author of those Books that are attributed to him The Samaritans who had received them from the ten separated Tribes have as religiously kept them as the Jews You have seen their Tradition and their History Two People so opposite took them not one from the other but both received them from their Common Original in the Times of Solomon and David The ancient Hebrew Characters which the Samaritans still retain do sufficiently shew that they have not followed Esdras who changed them Thus the Pentateuch of the Samaritans and that of the Jews are two compleat Originals independant one on the other The perfect conformity that is seen in the substance of the Texts justifies the Sincerity of both those People They are faithful Witnesses that agree without understanding one another or to speak better who agree together notwithstanding all their Enmities V. sup 1. part p. 24 25 34 49 59 63 80 86 87. and which only Immemorial Tradition of both Parties hath united in the same mind Those therefore who say tho' without any reason that those Books being lost or having never been were set up or composed a new or altered by Esdras besides their being contradicted by Esdras himself as may very well be observed in the course of his History are likewise so by the Pentateuch which is even now at this day to be seen in the hands of the Samaritans so as it had been read in the first Agas by Eusebius of Cesaria St. Jerome and the other Ecclesiastical Author so as those People had kept it in their Original and a Sect so weak as that seems not to continue so long but to bear this Testimony to the Antiquity of Moses The Authors that wrote the four Evangelists received no less assured Testimony from the unanimous consent of the Faithful the Heathens and the Hereticks That great Number of various People who received and translated those Divine Books as soon as they were made agree in their date and in their Authors The Heathens have not contradicted this Tradition Nor Colsus who attacked those Sacred Books even in the first beginning of Christianity nor Julian the Apostate tho' he was neither ignorant of any thing nor omitted any thing that might descredit them nor has any other Heathen ever suspected them to be supposititious but on the contrary they have all given them the same Authors as the Christians The Hereticks although they were confounded by the Authority of those Books yet durst not say that they were not of the Disciples of our Lord. Nay some of those Hereticks saw the beginnings of the Church and before whose eyes were written the Books of the Gospel So that fraud if there could possibly be any would have appeared too near to have been successâ—ul 'T is true after the time of the Apostles and when the Church was already spread over the face of the Earth Marcion and Mannes always the most rash and the most ignorant of all the Hereticks notwithstanding the Tradition coming from the Apostles coâ—tinued by their Disciples and by the Bishops to whom they had left their Chair and the Conduct of the People and unanimously received by all the Christian Church were so bold as to say that there Evangelists were supposititious and that that of St. Luke which they preferred to all the others they knew not why since it came by no other way had been falsified But what proofs gave they of this nothing but meer Visions no positive Matters of Fact All the reason they gave was that what was contrary to their
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
they never thought they did so Constance who persecuted St. Athanasius the Defender of the Ancient Faith ardently desired says Ammianus Marcellinus Id. lib. 15. to get him condemned by the Authority which the Bishop of Rome had over the others By seeking to support himself with that Authority he made the Heathens themselves sensible of what was wanting to his Sect and honoured the Church from which the Arrians had departed thus the Gentiles themselves acknowledged the Catholick Church If any one asked them where they kept their Assemblies and who were their Bishops they never deceived them As for Heresies whatsoever they made they could never get rid of the name of then Authors The Sabellians the Paulianists the Arrians the Pelagians and the rest were scandalized in vain at the title of the Faction which was given to them The World whatsoever they could do would speak naturally and designed every Sect by him from whom it first sprung As for the great Church the Catholick and Apostolick Church it was always impossible to affix any other Author to it than Jesus Christ himself nor to assign to it the first of its Pastors without going up as high as to the very Apostles nor to give it any other name than what it had before taken So that what Hereticks soever were made they could not conceal it from the Heathens She opened to them her Bosom all â—he World over and they ran to her in troops Some of them were possibly lost in the by-Paths but the Catholick Church was the great way wherein entred always most of those who sought after Jesus Christ and Experience has sufficiently discovered that to her it was given to bring in the fulness of the Gentiles Her also it was whom the unbelieving Emperours attacked with all their power and force Orig. cont Cels 7. Just. Apol. 2. Origen tells us that few of the Hereticks were sufferers for the Faith St. Justin more ancient than he hath observed that the Persecution spared the Marcionites and the other Hereticks The Heathens only persecuted that Church which they saw spread her self over the face of the whole Earth and only acknowledged her self for the Church of Jesus Christ What matters it to pull off some of the Branches her good Sap was not lost for all that she went into other places and the cutting down the superfluous Wood served but to make the Fruit come better In fine if we consider the History of the Church we shall always find that when ever one Heresie impaired it she recovered her losses both by enlarging outwardly and increasing inwardly light and piety whilst she beheld in some distant Corners the cut off Branches to dry and wither The work of man was perished notwithstanding the power of Hell to support it the work of God has continued and the Church hath triumphed over Idolatry and all Errours whatsoever THIS Church so always attacked XIII General Reflections on the Progress of Religion and the relation there is between the Books of the Scripture yet never overcome is a perpetual Miracle and a clear and shining Testimony of the Immutability of the Divine Councils In the midst of the agitation of Humane Affairs she still supported her self with an invincible force so that by an uninterrupted course for near these seventeen hundred years do we see her come up even to Jesus Christ in whom she hath collected the Succession of the ancient People and was found reunited to the Prophets and Patriarchs And so many astonishing Miracles which the Hebrews of old saw with their eyes do still serve at this day to confirm our Faith That great God who wrought them for a Testimony of his Unity and his Almightiness what could he do more authentick to preserve the memory of them than to leave in the hands of so great a People the Acts which punctually attest them in order of time this is what we now have in the Books of the Old Testament that is to say in the most ancient Books that are in the World in those Books which are the only ones of Antiquity where the knowledge of the true God is taught and his service ordained in those Books which the Jews have always so religiously kept 'T is certain that they were the only People who originally knew God the Creator of Heaven and Earth and consequently the only People to whom the Divine Secrets were to be committed They also kept them with a most religious care Those Books which the Egyptians and the other People called Divine are lost long since and there scarce remains so much as any confused Remembrance of them in ancient Histories The sacred Books of the Romans wherein Numa the Author of their Religion had written the Mysteries of them are perished even by the hands of the Romans themselves and the Senate commanded them to be burnt as tending to the overthrow of Religion And those same Romans at last suffered likewise the Books of the Sibyls Tit. Liv. li. 40. c. 29. Varr. l. de Cult Deor ap Aug. de Civ 12. 34. to be destroyed which were for so long time reverenced by them as Prophetical and wherein they would make the World believe that they found the Decrees of the Immortal Gods concerning their Empire and yet notwithstanding they never published I do not say one single Volume but so much as one single Oracle It has been only the Jews who have had the Sacred Scriptures in so much the greater Veneration as they were the more known Of all the ancient People these alone preserved the Primitive Monuments of their Religion albeit they so fully gave testimony of their Infidelity with that of their Ancestors And at this very day do this People still remain upon the Earth to carry into all Nations where they are dispersed together with the course and progress of their Religion the Miracles and Predictions which render it immoveable When Jesus Christ was come and sent by his Father to accomplish the Promises of the Law he confirmed his Mission and that of his Disciples by new Miracles which have been also written with the same exactness The Acts of them have been published all the World over the Circumstances of Time Persons and Places have made the Examen easie to all that have been careful of their Salvation The World was informed the World has believed and if we have but ever so little considered the ancient Monuments of the Church we must avow that never has any thing been determined with more of reflection and knowledge But as to the Relation which the Books of the two Testaments have to one another there is one difference to be considered that is that the Books of the ancient People were composed at divers times Some are the times of Moses others those of Joshua and the Judges and others of the Kings some are those when the People were brought out of Egypt and received the Law others those when they obtained the