is also a Spiritaal Romance made up of Stories which do no Honor neither to S. Anthony nor S. Athanasius nor in general to the Christian Religion I know not what Spirit of Fanaticism and Melancholy does mingle it self therein they had or they feigned themselves to have Visions the Devils appeared to them they tempted and sollicited them to fleshly Sins and when they could not prevail upon them they beat them cruelly The Abbot Serenus in Cassian says * Cass Collat. 7. cap. 23. As soon as we have formed a Convent of Eight or Ten Monks the fury of the Devil rages in such a manner against them that they experience his Assaults very frequently and in a plain and obvious manner for which reason they dare not sleep all together but whilst some sleep others watch To this may be joyned a Spirit of Superstition which produces Excesses some whereof are capable of horror and astonishment A Monk named Batteus * Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 34. mortified himself through Fasting to that degree and measure what Worms were bred in his Gums and came out of his Teeth another named Cyrus †Ibid. lived Seventy years without tasting any Bread. Another named Acepsemus * Theod. lib. 4. cap. 28. lived Sixty years shut up in a Cell never going out or being seen of any one One named Macarius ‖ Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 23. during the space of Twenty years lived by Bread and Water he did eat and drink by weight he fastened his Body by night to a Wall that he might not sleep Another called Dorotheus * Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 29. made it a thing necessary and a part of Devotion never to stretch out his Legs upon his Bed. Another called Didymus lived to the Age of Ninety years without speaking to or seeing any Person Another named Pior * Ibid. 6. having made a Vow never to see any Person his Sister after Fifty years passionately longed to see him and he was obliged by his Superiors to give her that satisfaction He came therefore and presented himself at the Door of his Sister he made himself seen to her but he shut his Eyes that he might not see her and after he had repeated certain Psalms he went his way Another Sirnamed Stilites * Evag. lib 1. cap. 13. because of the Pillar on which he lived spent Thirty Seven years thereon And many afterwards in imitation of him did the same things and obtained the Sirname of Stilites †Niceph. lib. 11. Amonius a Companion of S. Anthony being chosen Bishop cut off his Ear to the end that he might not be so and declared he would cut out his Tongue if they pressed him farther thereon A Monk named Thomas * Soz. lib. 6. an Inhabitant of Thebais lived Thirty years without speaking Another Monk named Paul †Ibid. in his Devovotions imposed a necessity upon himself of making three Hundred Prayers to God every day and that he might not miscount he had three Hundred little Flints whereof he threw one out of his Bosom at every Prayer that he made Behold what was the Character of the Monks of the Fourth Age and behold that which at this time men report to the Honor of these poor Ideots which did pass for great Saints or of these Hypocrites which did impose upon mankind But can a Man read without horror that which Evagrius reports concerning the customs and manner of Life of the Monks of Jerusalem in the time that the Empress Eudoxia Wife of Theodosius the younger went thither Some of them made a War upon themselves so cruel that oftentimes they remained upon the ground without appearance of Life and were taken for unburied Carcases others lodged themselves in Holes where they could neither lye nor stand others hid themselves in Caves and made it a piece of Devotion to live among wild Beasts others both Men and Women stript themselves naked covering only their shameful Parts and in this nakedness exposed themselves to be roasted in the Beams of the Sun from Morning to Evening in the Summer and in the Winter they continued in the same estate exposing themselves to the severest rigors of cold they ate nothing of what Men do use to eat they fed on Grass like Oxen they were also called Boscoi i. e. Eaters of Herbs and in time they became altogether like Beasts not preserving the very appearance of Men and human shape if they saw Men afar off they ran to hide themselves as from Bears in some Cave or they secured themselves upon Rocks with the swiftness of a wild Goat But all this is nothing in comparison of what Evagrius adds There are Monks who to make it appear that they had extinguished Concupiscence conversed in the World promiscuously Men and Women all naked they went into Brothel Houses into the most infamous places they lay together both Men and Women the Men bathed themselves with Women and Women with Men and all this in publick view without Shame and without covering their Faces Besides the Madness is there not Impudence in these Devotions and must not a Man have a depraved taste in matters of Piety to look on these Extravagancies with admiration as at that time they did Besides all this the Spirit of Lying and Error seized on these Men a Man may say truly that all the Depravations of the Christian Religion did take their Original from Monks In the Fifth and Sixth Age they became Anthropomorphites and Originists and those who have any knowledg of the History of the Church do know that they stirred up many Troubles there They maintained their Opinion and their Friends not only by Words and Clamors but by Blows Socrates reports that during the Controversies that Cyril Bishop of Alexandria had with Orestes Governour of Egypt * Soc. lib. 11. cap. 14. five Hundred Monks came from the Mountain Nitria to the City for the assistance of Cyril their Bishop They stirred up a Sedition against the Governour one of these Monks called Ammonius gave him a knock on the Head with a Flint whereby he lost a great deal of Blood. There are no Heresies or Superstitions of which they may not be called the Authors 't is they which introduced the Superstition of invocating Saints and adoring Relicks Eunapius a Pagan Author who lived at the end of the Fourth Age saith That in Egypt they appointed Monks in the Village Cannopus to worship Slaves so they called the Martyrs And S. Austin in the Book concerning the Work of Monks says That in his time a Swarm of Monks scattered themselves abroad every where and made Merchandise of the Bones of Martyrs It was they who brought Images into the Church and that Worship which gives so much Grief to Souls which are jealous of the Love of God and so much Scandal to Christians Also in the War between the Breakers of Images and the Worshipers of Images they were the principal
Non-elect and Reprobates so that it is absurd that God should cause his Gospel to be preached to a herd of Reprobates among which there is not one person on whom the Word can produce its effect It will be therefore in vain that God should preserve Christians in all the East and South for these Christians being out of the saving Unity will be damned just in the same manner as if they were Pagans Fourthly The Schism of the Ten Tribes gives us a convincing Proof that in Schismatical Churches every single Person is not in a state of Damnation Jeroboam separated ten Tribes from the other two he would not suffer them to go up to Jerusalem but engaged them in a formal Schism nevertheless God there preserved both Prophets as Elijah and Elisha and a multitude of Persons which he affirmed to be his own because they had not bowed the knee to Baal There is therefore no particular Church that has reason to boast it self of having Unity alone to the prejudice of all other Churches Fifthly The truth is that on one side the Jews converted to Christianity in the time of the Apostles and on the other side the Pagan Converts lived in a true Schism for these Jewish Christians would have no Communion with the converted Pagans nevertheless they did not mutually damn each other therefore we ought not to damn those which live in Schism whatever it be The converted Jews had considerable Errors they observed the Law and would retain Circumcision with all their might Things incompatible with Christianity as S. Paul declares so positively as to say If any one be circumcised Christ should profit him nothing nevertheless God suffers and saves them with considerable Errors It is not therefore true that the Church is shut up in one sole Communion and that every Error damns when we separate from a Society that is justly called the Church but it 's true that remaining in a Society bearing that Name we may nevertheless be damned when there are mortal Errors there as there are in the Church of Rome Sixthly Ask your Converters who would oblige you to return to the Church of Rome on pain of Damnation under pretence that Unity is in that Church alone ask them I say whether they would pronounce that all the Greek Christians of whom there are millions are damned for this only reason because they will not adhere to the Roman Church who alone has Unity in her possession If they have the front to say yea ask them if they acknowledge the Greeks for Christians They will also also answer you yea pursue and press them by asking how God can abandon to eternal Damnation an infinite number of Christians who according to the Church of Rome hold no Capital Errors and are only mistaken in things of small consequence If the Papists boast of the consent of all Christians of other Communions and particularly of the Geeks in the Invocation of Saints in the Adoration of Images in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the real Presence and Adoration they do therefore hold all that the Church of Rome esteems necessary to Salvation why therefore will they damn them for little things and for this alone that they will not live in this pretended Unity To compleat the confusion of your Converters by themselves on the subject of this Unity out of which we are departed Ask them if this Unity be not a certain circle in which the true Church is enclosed They will answer you yea proceed to ask them Whether this certain Circle of Unity has not its Centre that is to say a certain eminent Church to which all the rest ought to have their Relation to the end that they may be within the ciâ—cle of Unity they will also answer you yea and they will add that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is this centre of Unity Monsieur de Meaux finds a way to secure himself from the Thunders of Rome by frequent repeating this and indeed this Supposition according to their Hypothesis is of absolute necessity for if this Circle of Unity have no Centre of Adherence it vanishes immediately a man will always be able to say with good reason To what Church would you that I should adhere is it to that of Paris or that of Toledo These are particular Churches which may err if therefore the Pope be ruined if the necessity of Adherence to the Pope be removed the circle of Unity perishes with him which they call the centre of Unity Now observe that at this day the Divines of the French Church your Converters ruine the Pope from head to foot they take away the centre of Unity and by destroying the centre they destroy the circle 'T is to this that so many modern Writings of Maimbourgh Gerbas Noel Alexander made after the Kings Declarations and the Definitions of the Bishops on this Subject or in prospect of them do tend But the Gallican Church never spake so openly as she hath done but a little while fince by the Pen of a Doctor of the Sorbonne called Elias Pin touching the ancient Discipline of the Church Those among you my Brethâ—en which do not understand the Latin Tongue may consuâ—t those that do and they will inform you that in this Book may be read 1. That the Bishop of Rome had originally no power over other Churches 2. That in the first Institution of Patriarchs he had no power but over the Suburbicane Provinces that is to say those near to Rome 3. That the Popes by little and little ruined the Rights of the Metropolitan Bishops and by Usurpation ascribed them to themselves 4. That the Pope has no right to review and finally judge the Causes determined by the Bishops 5. That the Priviledges which the See of Rome at this day enjoys are not by divine Right but either by Usurpation or the Concession of Councils 6. That to be a good Catholick and a good Christian it is in no wise necessary in many Occurrences to adhere to the See of Rome 7. That the Primacy of the Church which the Pope possesses appertains not to him but by a tolerated Usurpation or as a Priviledge granted by Councils This gives him no character of Infallibility nor the right of judging finally and above Councils Behold exactly the Divinity of the Gallican Church at this day for this man in the view of the Court had not written thus without its Order Behold also the centre of Unity intirely subverted and so subverted as it was by Calvin and Luther This being so why do these Gentlemen everlastingly beat upon your ears about their Unity and the centre of Unity There is no more Unity in the Church of Rome since there is no centre of it there for since adherence to the Pope is no farther necessary to be a true Christian you are not departed from Unity and Christianity by departing from the Communion of the Pope observe therefore thereon that Monsieur de Meaux and your
is true that in his Book of Prescriptions from the 15th Chapter to the 22th he proves that we may not dispute against Hereticks by the Scripture but by the Tradition of the Churches And he returns to it again in the 37th and 38th Chapters thereof But if the new Converts which have written to us and do send us to that Book had read it with some wisdom and attention of mind they would have seen that it neither doth nor can concern us 1. The Hereticks concerning whom the question is there were no Christians they were Magicians Disciples of Simon Magus who retained the Name of Christian and no mâ—â—â— Besides Tertullian says plainly * Chap. 37. That we must 〈◊〉 them at a distance from the Scriptures because being no Christians they did not belong to them 2. These Hereticks did not acknowledg the Authority of the Scriptures they rejected them or received only some pieces of them cut off from the rest and which were wholly corrupt and falsified And when the Catholicks quoted to them the Holy Scripture they derided it as a fabulous Writing How then could any man dispute with them from a Book whose Authority they did not acknowledge there was a necessity of having recourse to another sort of proofs 2. That which was good in the time of Tertullian is not good at this time of day I do maintain that it was then very easie and very convenient to dispute against Hereticks by Tradition It was then not above an hundred years since the last of the Apostles died There was nothing more easie than to learn what had been their Doctrine by their Successors It is about a hundred and fifty years since the Reformed Church of Geneva had its existence If the Doctrin of Calvin were now under dispute nothing were more easie than to prove without Book that his Doctrine passed without alteration even to those that now teach in that Church and School But is it the same thing when there are 1200 1500 and 2000 years past By what way can we search so far and ascend so high through an infinite number of Men of whom not one hath retained the Doctrine that he did receive in the same estate in which it was delivered to him Behold a very fine Comparison 3. Add to this that Tertullian sends us to the Testimony of those Churches which were founded by the Apostles because those Churches had the Authentick Letters as he calls them that is to say the Original Writings of the Apostles so that to send the Hereticks to the Churches and to their Testimony by reason of those Authentick Letters was to sâ—â—d them to the Scripture it self 4. Besides let thes◠〈◊〉 â—nd She Converts which have been seduced by the reading of this Book read it from the 22 to the 32 Chap. and they will see that the Doctrine which Tertullian would have us search in Tradition is the same which was contained in the Writings of the Apostles and not an unwritten Word and certain Doctrines which the Apostles did commit to the Ears and the Memories of their Successors The Hereticks would not acknowledge the Authority of the sacred Volumes Go to says Tertullian to them lay by the Holy Bocks and let us lay hold of Tradition let us see what the Bishops have taught since the Apostles and I will prove that 't is precisely the same Doctrine with that which is written in our Books which you reject Read you that have suffered your selves to be abused read I say the 22 Chap. and those that follow to the 27 and you will see that the Hereticks spake exactly the same Language which your Converters do that we must not apply to nor support our selves by the Writings of the Apostles * Tertull. de Prescrip c. 25. That the Apostles indeed might know all and agree in the things which they did preach but they did not reveal all things to all that they said certain things publickly and to all but that there were other things which they said in secret and to a few and that is it which St. Paul means when he saith to Timothy O Timothy keep that good thing which was committed to thee Behold exactly the Doctrine of your Converters and that of the ancient Hereticks 'T is that which Tertullian opposes proving that the Apostles delivered nothing by Tradition but that which is written 5. Poor silly Fools which have suffered your selves to be seduced by I know not what shadows and appearances and who put your selves to judge of Antiquity without knowing any thing thereof If you knew against what Hereticks Tertullian disputed you would see that the Contrversie was not about things that were not in the Holy Scriptures These Hereticks denied that Jesus Christ was God and that he was a true Man They said that he had no true Flesh and that his Passion was nothing but a Tragedy and an appearance of a great many Phantoms they denied the Resurrection of the Flesh Was there any need to recur to Tradition to prove such things as these Doth not the Scripture contain those Truths that are opposite to these wicked Imaginations as clearly as Tradition And do you not see that Tertullian forsakes the Scriptures on this Subject only because the Enemies against which he disputed had forsaken them and had no reverence for their Authority 6. To conclude If there be any hard terms in this Book attribute them in the first place to the heat of Dispute which always carries Men too far secondly to the Genius and African manner of Tertullian's Expressions and learn that according to the same Author * Lib. Prescrip c. 15. One cannot prove any thing which respects the Faith but by those Letters and Writings which are the Rule thereof Learn by this excellent Passage of Tatian who was then the Judge of Controversies and the Source and Fountain of Instruction 't is to that he refers the manner of his becoming a Christian †Tatian Orat. in Graec. As I sought every where with care I happened on some Books of the Barbarians so the Pagans call the Books of Christians and Jews and I sound them as to time much more ancient than the Philosophy of the Greeks and much more venerable if we consider the Errors which are in the Grecian Books I gave credit to these Books because their style was simple and yet magnificent because there was nothing affected in them because the Discourses were not obscure and many things to come were predicted in them I was affected with them because of the greatness of the Promises and because they learn'd me that there was but one Moâ—â—rch in the Vniverse This Ancient knew not as yet the Divinity of Monsieur de Meaux that the first Article of Faith is I believe the Church and that we ought not to believe that the Scripture is Divine but because the Church says so And as to Tradition you which suffer your selves to be dazled by the
because that he well saw that his only Son would be forced to follow that Religion in which he began to be engaged he prayed God to take his Son out of the World and that he might see him die before he died himself Two days after the Son fell sick and in two days he died in the presence of his Father and the Father himself died the day after rendring a thousand Thanks to God that he had heard his Prayer and that he had taken them both out of this World to give them a better Life I learnt this Story from St. Maixent the 10th of August 1684. from two persons worthy of credit viz. the Husband and Wife who had a Child nursed by the Wife of the said Bardon he which made me the Report of this Matter is called Mr. Lavergnac Master of the Grange of the Village of Luzignan in Poitou a person of good credit and full of zeal for Religion his Wife also being present In the Year 1685. the 20th of January a Woman of Jonzac in Saintonge called Susan de Lisle the Wife of Boynard a Glover being with Child as she was in her House sitting upon a Settle by the Window rising up she felt that her Child stretcht it self in her Womb and at the same time she heard it utter a very extraordinary cry and a little after this Infant having again moved it self cried out about a quarter of an Hour with the true Voice of an Infant whereupon the Mother was much frighted and called some persons to help her she having then no body with her but her own Daughter about nine Years old who having plainly heard this cry said to her Mother my little Brothâ—r crys in in your belly this Child was born three Months and nineteen Days after this it was baptized at Linieres by Mr. Couyer Pastor of the said place and was a very vigorous Child and grew in six Months time twice as much as it ought to do We have learnt this story from Liniers from the mouth of the Mother of this Woman and from the Daughter which was present and from the Husband of the God-mother of the Child From Martinique the 24th of May 1687. MOnsieur Poysonnel who commanded a Frigate from Marseille which had taken two hundred Maids and Women and almost as many Gally slaves to bring hither was lost three days since as he was coming into this Town The whole number of persons which were on board the Vessel were 320 and were all drowned as 't is said excepting 30 of the Soldiers and Mariners This was by the imprudence of the Pilots God hath given rest to these poor miserable Creatures This Note teacheth us the sad and glorious end of the Confessors which we spake of to you Others write that this Shipwreck was by command because the Wind was very fair to bring them into the Haven of the Isle and that all the Soldiers and Mariners were saved As for me I will not prejudice the Spirits of men concerning this Fact it being an Action so enormous This is certain that God was pleased to deliver these blessed Confessors and snatch them from the cruel slavery which they had prepared for them August 1. 1687. The Twenty fourth PASTORAL LETTER That the Church of Rome is not visible and that she has no mark which makes her visible A confutation of those Means whereof Mr. Nicholas pretends to serve himself to make his Church visible Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ BEfore we pass to another part of the Controversie about the Church and leave the Question concerning its perpetual visibility and after examination of the visibility of the Church in general 't is needful that we take cognizance of the visibility of the Roman Church in particular 'T is needful that you say to your Converters since 't is so that the Church is always visible and that you are the Church help us to see her in and by what is the Roman Church visible If they shew you great Churches full of Men that pray and adore which hear Vespers and Mattins who prostrate themselves before Wafers and Images you will answer this is not to shew me the Church For if I were at Constantinople a Turk would shew me his Mosques all full of Worshippers which cry there is but one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Tell them If you please to go to London I will shew you the Church in England as you shew it me in France I will shew you great Churches full of men which pray and adore which prostrate themselves before God who pray and understand what they pray for 'T is unavoidable therefore that you shew me not Men and heaps of Stones which are called Churches but sensible and visible marks that Popery is the true Religion of Jesus Christ and that the Church of Rome is the true Church Add to this that the marks which they give you ought to be suitable to your capacity i. e. the capacity of plain persons and without learning For the space of twelve or fifteen Years the Popish Doctors of France have changed the Controversie this way The business is not to instruct the learned 't is acknowledged on both sides that the multitude and greater part of the Church is composed of men without learning and of plain people which must be saved as well as the more able From henceforth therefore it is necessary to furnish a means to the common people to inform them of the truth in matters of controversie and a means altogether suitable to their weakness Particularly in this Controversie Whether the Church of Rome hath certain and evident marks of her truth which make her visible For 't is an important Affair and which the weakest ought to understand It is certain that a Church cannot be visible in quality of a Church by any other means than what they call her marks of this we are at an agreement We must therefore see whether the Church of Rome hath those marks which may make the weakest perceive she is a true Church I will not here ingage you in that Labyrinth of Disputes which the Doctors of the Church of Rome have formed about the marks of that Church 'T is their manner to bury the truth under a prodigious heap of useless words and obscure questions I will not examine the sixteen marks which Bellarmine has given nor the forty which others have produced You cannot read those Books nor are they those which they put into your hands and since that time they are become more able in Sophistry Mr. Nicholas who is the last that hath laboured on this Subject has employed three Chapters to prove that the Church of Rome is very visible even to the most weak and plain In the first of these three Chapters he says * Chap. 17 18 19 of the 1st Book The Reformed convinced of Schism That a man may
is a Person far above all the Eulogies that I can possibly give him His Writings have been of very great use to the Reformed in France his Praise is in all the Reformed Churches in Christendom and he will be mentioned with honor to many Generations The Subject-matter of his Letters is partly Doctrinal and partly Historical In the doctrinal part of them he very well lays open the weakness and sophistry of the Romish Priests in the defences they make for their Falshoods and Superstitions In the historical part of them he reports such inhumane and beastly Cruelties exercised upon those of the Reformed Religion as may cause a just horror to all that read it He that can believe such Cruelties do receive any countenance or encouragement from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles may believe what he pleases He may believe that the Sun is the cause of Darkness and that all the Fruits of the Earth are the product of the Frosts and Snows of the coldest and most Northern Climates 18. When the Learned Arabian observed that the Romish Christians ate their God he said Let my Soul be among the Philosophers When I observe what Cruelties and Barbarities are committed by them upon their Brethren their Neighbours and their Acquaintance I do not say Let my Soul be among the Philosophers but with old Jacob I will say O my Soul come not thou into their Secret Gen. 49.6 and to their Assembly mine honour be not thou united Should I have Communion with them in such Villanies I should think I should never have Communion with my Saviour in his Heavenly Kingdom I can never believe that a Person so kind so tender pitiful and compassionate as Christ Jesus was towards Mankind could ever preach such Doctrine as doth encourage Blood and Rapine Cruelty and Oppression among any of his Disciples I could as easily believe all the nonsensical Doctrine of the Alcoran and all the ridiculous Fables of the Jewish Talmud as that the Doctrine of our Saviour doth countenance or justifie the most Cruel and Imhumane PERSECUTIONS 19. Concerning the Translation of these Letters I designed it for the Advantage of those of the Reformed Religion in this Nation and I hope God will bless it to that end and that it may create upon the minds of Men a suspition of the falshood of Popish Doctrines and an abhorrence of Popish Practices In Translating I have endeavoured to make the Author speak English I have not kept my self strictly to his Words but have endeavoured to represent his Sense truly and have not willingly perverted it The FIRST PASTORAL LETTER IN WHICH Are discovered the Methods that are at this Day used to make Converts Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ YOu may be assured that we are pierced and wounded with your Sorrows and Afflictions and that from the Haven where the Providence of God hath placed us we do behold with eyes bathed in tears the terrible Waves of that Tempest that tosses you and hath shipwrecked the Vessels in which you are imbarqued We advise with our own hearts and affections with our duty with the uneasie state and circumstances in which both you and we are what we may do for your consolation and security against the peril of seduction and we can find almost nothing possible insomuch that till God shall open those Doors that are at this day closed we shall chuse to speak to you at a distance in hopes that God will not tarry long ere he give us the opportunity of a nearer and more intimate conversation We will obviate and oppose that evil that presses most hard upon you We do not think the Cross of Christ which you now bear is the greatest calamity to which you are exposed 'T is your Glory and we find by Letters that come from those that persevere that God is their Comforter that he hath prevented our desires that he hath given efficacy to a few words that we have sent from far that he hath absolutely and without us wrought upon you that he hath very much surpassed our hopes that he is in you a living Fountain of Consolations more abundant than we could dare to hope There do come Letters from our Confessors which are in Chains in the Galleys in Holes and Dungeons of an hundred feet in depth in dark Prisons in Torments which ravish us which revive the ancient times which give a new birth to our ancient Martyrs which make us know that the greater the Torments are to which you are exposed the greater is the courage and strength that God doth communicate for the bearing and overcoming of them That which we most fear on your behalf is Seduction the Examples that we have seen with our eyes make us tremble Persons that we looked upon as Pillars have been broken as Reeds That which they call Conferences that is to say the Sophistry of false Teachers who employ all their art to deceive have perverted the Judgments of many from whom we expected an invincible stedfastness and perseverance They oppress and confound you with Disputes They put into your hands Books in which Falshood is clothed in the dress habit and appearance of Truth They take from you all those things that may protect and secure you from the Poison of those venomous Serpents that are perpetually hissing in your ears Whilst our Hands are bound and our Tongues tyed we do with grief behold the Sheep of Christ rent and torn from his Fold to be carried into the dark Prisons of the Prince of Lyes What is to be done in this case It seems to no purpose to write more Books there are a thousand and a thousand ready written and very lately one was published as an Answer to the malignant Subtilties of these false Teachers But it will not come to you by reason of the great care that is taken to prevent honest Men from going out of the Kingdom and good Books from entering into it If new Books should be written they would have the same fortune Besides 't is uneasie to trouble the world with Repetitions when we cannot have the hopes or consolation of being profitable unto you thereby If Repetitions must be made it ought to be with some hopes of advantage For this reason we are resolved to write no more Books but shall content our selves with Letters It may be that God may cause them to flie over all those Ramparts that the new Inquisition hath raised at all the Ports of the Realm At least there is some reason to hope that they will more easily get over those Obstacles and Impediments which are opposed to the design that we have to fortifie you against Temptation We shall publish these Letters every month or every fifteen days or more frequently according to occurrences and necessities and in them we shall endeavour to discover the illusions by which we are assured that the Seducers
they had no Altars Pattins Communion-Cloaths or holy Habits to remove from place to place The Mysteries were celebrated in a perfect Simplicity 4. Ordinarily the Sacrament was celebrated at ordinary and sober Meals where Christians came by invitation About the end of the Meal they brake Bread precisely with those Ceremonies which S. Paul describes in 1 Cor. 11. 5. The Sacrament of Baptism was also administred with the same simplicity they contented themselves with dipping persons in Water with the Invocation of the adorable Trinity As is seen in all the Baptisms spoken of in the Book of the Acts. 6. It had been an Abomination to have seen Images And those which have the confidence to shew at this day Images as made by S. Luke and from the time of the Apostles are impudent beyond all imagination Altho these Images should be things indifferent in Religion how is it that the Apostles should scandalize the Jews who had Images in that horror that they broke in pieces the Ensigns of the Roman Emperors How is it that the Jews which sought pretences against S. Paul to destroy him as an Apostate and Violater of the Law never objected to him that he proposed Images to be adored 7. In the Holy Places there was no Altar but to consecrate and communicate they serv'd themselves of the first Table that came to hand they sprinkled no Holy Water on those that entered their Churches they made no Sign of the Cross in the Celebration of the Mysteries 8. They spake and Preached in a Language understood by all the world they officiated in Greek throughout all Greece in Latin at Rome and in all the West to every one according to their Language 9. They gave the Communion to all under both kinds 10. Celebration without Communicants was a thing altogether unknown for the Eucharist was called a Supper or common Meal Now a Meal where one Man drinks and eats alone was never called a Supper or common Repast 11. The Pastors were equal amongst themselves Not to enter into the Controversie about the Difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter which is not at all necessary for you It is certain that all the Bishops of different Churches were all equal among themselves If we falsifie in any of these Articles your Converters shall do well to shame us but they will be obliged to do it by Holy Scripture For they and you must remember that we are upon the History and that we follow the Ages in their order and so it 's necessary that in the first Age they shew us all by the Writers of that Age which are the Apostles and their Disciples Seeing it is not at all in our Design to make a Treatise of Controversie upon the first Age no more than on those that follow this is sufficient for its History and we must pass to the second But forasmuch as we cannot at the present go very far in the second Age we will delay the History thereof to a following Letter and we will finish this with some Letters of our Confessors where you will see the Character of true Christianity and Martyrs you have already seen one Letter of a famous Confessor behold another of the same Author You will understand the Loveliness of this second Letter the better by reading that which was the occasion thereof which was an Answer to the first And therefore you shall have them both here May 27 1686. To our Dear Brother Monsieur de M Confessor and Martyr of Jesus Christ condemned to the Gallies at the Tournelle I Have received your Letter my dear Brother dated from the Tournelle It hath caused me more joy than if I had received one from the Pallace at Versailles or Louvre written by the Hand of the greatest King in the World. You do me much greater Honor than I do deserve to chuse me to whom you may impart the glorious advantages that God bestows upon you Another it may be would answer by condoling and complaining of the Evils that you suffer But as for me God forbid that I should look upon you as unhappy Your state is worthy of Envy your Chains are heavy and your Irons shameful according to the opinion of the world and if you bore them with any other Spirit than you do I should complain thereof But with the Courage and Piety which you seem to me to have I do not believe that there is a person in the world more happy and more glorious The Yoke of Christ is heavy to the Men of the World which are weak but it is sweet and easie to faithful Souls that bear it with patience Your Sentiments and Dispositions are Christian my dear Brother and worthy of emulation but beware of one thing that is Pride If you continue this glorious Work as you have begun it your name will be put in the Catalogue of holy Martyrs whose names yet live laden with Blessings God will distinguish you in his Rewards you shall be with Jesus Christ amongst the first raised from the dead which shall judge others But attribute the Courage that you have to the Grace of God which works this great Work in you so worthy of admiration Alas we have seen pillars broken by the wind of Temptation Men fall unhappily which we had called the Successors of the Martyrs but which have been found Successors to Peter who through weakness denyed his Master Who is it that hath sustained you among so many Falls but the Hand of the Almighty God who supports whom he pleaseth and permits to fall whom he will by the ununsearchableness of his Judgments What an Honor is it my dear Brother to have been willing to chuse you and make you an example of that holy perseverance which is so rare at this day Be of good courage in the name of our great God and most compassionate Saviour Jesus Christ and remember my dear Brother that you suffer for him who suffered for you and render to him that which you have received from him Remember that the loving Saviour offers you a Crown at the end of you Race and that he says to you Soldier of Jesus Christ be of good courage Fight the good fight he which overcomes I will cause to sit down on my throne as I also have overcome and am set down with my father in his throne Remember that the Angels are at present Spectators of your Combat that they wait the issue and that they prepare a place for your holy Soul in their holy Society Either you will continue in these Torments or you will surmount and escape them If this last happens as I very much hope how glorious will you be among your Brethren You will have right to say as S. Paul Let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks and scars of our Lord Jesus We shall kiss your wounds and we shall behold you with envy and admiration If you lose your life in your slavery and
neither in the Apostolick Church 3. They undertook a custom of bringing Offerings and Alms not in Silver but in Merchandize Bread Wine Corn Raisins Fruits c. And of that they offered on the Holy Table those things which might be of use in the publick Service whereas in the Apostolick Church we see no other Alms but such as were gathered by the Hands of the Deacons either at the end or beginning of their Assemblies 4. Of these Alms of the Believers they made Oblations to God consecrating them by Prayer 5. At the end of their Prayers before the Communion they added the mutual kiss which was not of Apostolick Institution and was afterwards abolished 6. Many persons entertained an opinion of the separate state for Souls after death a third place which was utterly unknown to the Apostles 7. They conceive an excessive Love for the Bones of the Martyrs nevertheless without giving them any kind of Worship or Religious Homage This excessive love for Bones was not reasonable nor was it of the Apostolick Age. 8. About the end of the second Age they appointed Feasts to celebrate the memories of the Martyrs which was not neither of Apostolick Institution 9. They appointed a day or two for Fasting before Easter Behold the principal Innovations in the second Age in which there is nothing almost that can be blamed considered in it self and separated from the Fruits and Consequences thereof To conclude to the end that you be not abused by false Authors you ought to know that we entertain none for the Writers of the second Age but these S. Clement the Disciple of S. Paul who writ an Epistle to the Corinthians S. Ignatius of whom we have many Epistles concerning which the Learned doubt with reason but we will nevertheless receive them in the present Affair S. Polycarp who wrote an Epistle to the Philippians the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of S. Polycarp Justin Martyr whose Works ought to be distinguished for there are many among them which are falsly attributed unto him Athanagoras the Athenian of whom we have an Apology for the Christians and a Discourse concerning the Resurrection Theophilus of Antioch of whom we have three Books written to Autolycus Tatian of whom we have a Discourse in Defence of the Christian Religion and against that of the Pagans And in fine S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons of whom we have a considerable Work against the Heresies of his Times If they quote unto you the Liturgies of S. Mark of S. James of S. Peter the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite the Canons of the Apostles and other like Discourses you ought to reject them as being false and forged in the opinion of all the Learned who have any thing of sincerity November 15 1686. THE SEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER CONCERNING Songs and Voices which were heard in several places in the Air. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ IN the last of our Letters we engaged our selves to communicate unto you certain notable matters of Fact which some of our Brethren have thought adviseable to impart unto us Amongst these matters of Fact I do not think there 's any one that better deserves to be examined than that which hath been reported to us That in many places where there have been formerly Churches Voices have been heard in the Air so perfectly like to our singing of Psalms that they could not be taken for any thing else If this be true 't is a wonder which very well deserves the labor of our attention We shall think our selves very ungrateful to the Divine Goodness if we should suppress so illustrious a Testimony of his Approbation He must be bold in this Age that dares speak of Prodigies Marvels Presages and other such like things There are times in which Men believe every thing in this wherein we now are they believe nothing I think there is a mean to be chosen we may not believe every thing but surely something ought to be believed For this Spirit of Incredulity and this Character of a brave Spirit is good for nothing and I have not as yet discovered the use thereof 'T is true Credulity hath destroyed Religion and introduced a thousand Superstitions for these unhappy Tales of Miracles done at the Tombs of Saints these Apparitions of Souls these pretended Visions of Spirits that come from the other World these say I have produced the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Images Purgatory Masses the Prayers of the living for the dead For which reason I am content that Men stand upon their Guard when any thing is debated and reported concerning wonderful and pious Histories The generality of those which are called honest Men are come so far from thence that they have cast themselves on the other extreme and believe nothing 'T is to expose a Man's self and to be turned into Ridicule to maintain that there have been Miracles and that there may yet be they mock at Presages and have no Faith for that which they call Prodigies Nevertheless whither goes this and what will be the Issue of it 'T is to deny Providence 't is to make our selves believe God does not intermeddle in the Affairs here below and to ruine all the Principles of human Faith and by consequence to cast our selves on a perfect Scepticism which is peradventure a disposition of mind the most dangerous to Religion of any in the World. By doubting all matters of Fact which have any appearance of extraordinary they tell us they have no intention to extend it any farther than the History of the World. But we don't perceive that we insensibly entertain a habit of doubting which extends it self to every thing There is a God we all consent thereto There is a Providence we all profess and avow it Nothing comes to pass without him Is it possible that God should so hide himself behind his Creatures and under the veil of second Causes that he should never at any time tho never so little draw aside the Curtain If we have taken a resolution to deny the truth of all extraordinary matters of Fact what shall we do with History both sacred and profane Can we persuade our selves that the Historians of all Ages intended to deceive us by making us believe that the great Revolutions which have happened in the Societies of Men and the Church have been preceded by extraordinary Events such as Earthquakes Signs in Heaven and Prodigies on Earth They will say the most part of these Histories are Fables it may be so but if the most part be Fables there have been some which have been true If there had never been any true Prodigies they would not have reported those that were false for falshood is an imitation of Truth He must have a hardness and impudence that I understand not that can put all Historians in one rank and range them all together
amongst Forgers of Lies I admire the agreement of those Writers which lived two or three thousand years from one another who nevertheless have all conspired to deceive us according to our Moderns and there is neither Sorcerers nor Magicians nor Possessions nor Apparitions of Demons nor any thing like it 'T is much that these Gentlemen have not pushed on their confidence even to deny the truth of matters of Fact contained in the Scriptures which would be very convenient for them In the times that the Sacred Writers writ their Books there were all these things and where do we find that they ought to cease and that a time was to come in which Devils should no more deceive Men and in which he Heaven should speak no more Prodigies Because Historians have not been infallible must we believe they have been all Liars and in all things Can a Man for example honestly call in doubt the prodigies which Josephus reports to us as coming to pass a little before the final ruin of Jerusalem A Man walked round the City and its Walls perpetually crying Wo wo to the Temple City c. and in fine during the Siege as he was upon the Wall he added Wo to me aso that which he never did before and in the very moment a great stone coming from the Engines of the Besiegers knock'd him on the Brest and brake him in pieces A Sword of Fire passed over the City Jerusalem for a whole year together from East to West A Voice was heard in the Temple which said Let us go hence A brazen Gate in the Temple which eighteen or twenty Men could scarce open opened of it self It must be that Josephus had a design to prostitute his Reputation reporting such matters of Fact the falseness whereof he might be convinced of by a thousand Witnesses yet living if they were not true The Saviour of the World was willing to honor some mute presages altho he might well have passed them by since he had so many living Testimonies on his behalf 't was his pleasure that the Heavens should produce a new Star at his Birth or at least that the Air should produce a new Meteor that deserved that name And what shall we say of that great Miracle which was at the Pool of Bethesda where an Angel descended troubled the Waters and the first sick person that went into them after the action of the Angel was healed This marvel was not ancient and without doubt it had not continued long 'T is clear that this was done about the time that our Lord arrived at the age of thirty years and entered upon the Office of Mediator and 't was an admirable presage of the coming of him who is called A fountain opened to the house of Jacob for sin and for uncleanness whose Water that is to say whose Grace was to heal and cure all our Maladies I could bring you an infinite number of matters of Fact very well attested that is to say Visions Prophetick Dreams Signs seen in the Air and in the Heavens which have been Presages of Events little less considerable than those we see at present 'T is true that under color of Signs and Marvels an hundred and an hundred Fables have passed current in the World but all that we ought to conclude thence is that every wise Man will have great Securities before he will believe As soon as any event may have natural Causes it signifies nothing according to these Gentlemen as if God was not at all the Master of natural Causes and could not dispose them for the production of certain Effects when he would presage great Revolutions in the World. It seems to me that Earthquakes have their natural Causes and so have Famines Pestilences and Wars nevertheless Jesus Christ puts these things among those things which are to presage his coming Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom there shall be famines earthquakes and pestilences in divers countries And why may we not interpret that which he adds of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and of Signs which are seen in Heaven The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken 'T is believed that this is a Description of what shall be at the last Day of Judgment but if this were a place for it I could prove that it is no such thing Not that I am persuaded all Eclipses and all Earthquakes are Presages but there are such Circumstances of time and place and concomitant Signs that a Man cannot as I think without rashness deny that the Providence of God doth dispense them to strike the minds of Men with astonishment and make them attentive to his Judgments What shall we say concerning the Bow in the Heavens It is made without doubt by natural Causes Nevertheless it has been the pleasure of God in all Ages of the World that it should be a Sign by Institution to assure Mankind that there should never be an universal Deluge upon the earth God granted to Gideon a Sign in Nature to assure him of the truth of his Mission Ezekias received one in the Sun at least in the shadow of the Sun on the Dial of Ahaz as a Sign of his restauration to life we may not therefore imagine that 't is contrary to the order of Providence to do extraordinary things in nature for the marking and noting extraordinary events in the World. Let us conclude therefore that the Credulity of our Ancestors hath caused many mischievous Tales to be received as faithful Histories but also that it hath been the cause that very faithful Histories do at this day pass for false Tales I could not refuse this little Prologue to the Year wherein we are presently to engage as abundant in Prodigies as any has been for a long time for on all sides we have heard speak of nothing but extraordinary Storms Fires falling from Heaven others coming out of the Earth of Signs speaking loud which have appeared in the Air of Insects of an unknown shape which have been believed to have fallen from Heaven The Writers of publick News have not been able to forbear remarking them and making their Reflections thereon I believe 't is the interest of the publick to make evident all these Events and there lies an Obligation on those that desire to fear God to give a very exact Relation concerning all these Prodigies if they intend to learn us any thing concerning them we intreat them that it be not on Reports and Hear-says yea that it be not on the report of persons whose fidelity is not very well known for we have no design to deceive either our selves or others this will be known by the manner wherein we shall report a matter of Fact that is to say the singing of Psalms in the Air which has been heard in divers places It is near a year since that
had that respect for the converted Pagans that they added as many innocent Ceremonies as they could to give to this Sacrament the appearance of a Sacrifice with the same intention they gave it the name with this intention to the first Oblation used in the second Age they added another And they began to present to God by Prayer the Bread and Wine they were about to consecrate and wherewith they made the Eucharist This is called Oblation and Sacrifice The Writings of the third Age are full thereof And 't is from thence that Popery would draw some advantage as if they found therein their Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead But this pretence is false for first of all it must be observed that the Fathers says expresly that 't is a Sacrifice of Bread and Wine we shall hear afterwards the Fathers of the fourth Age and those following At present we are to hear those of the third Clemens of Alexandria says that Melchisedec gave Bread and Wine as sanctified Provisions in Type of the Eucharist Which St. Cyprian explains in these words Our Lord hath offered to God the same Sacrifice that Melchisedec offered that is to say Bread and Wine viz. his Body and his Blood. We see says he farther the Sacrament of the Sacrifice of our Lord prefigured in the Priest Melchisedec according to what the Scripture testifies where it says Melchisedec brought forth Bread and Wine And a little below The Lord accomplishing and rendering perfect the image of his Sacrifice hath offered Bread and Wine Now who ever heard say that there were Propitiatory Sacrifices of Bread aad Wine All propitiation is in the effusion of blood and death of the Sacrifice 2. Moreover it is certain that the Fathers of the third Age called the Eucharist a Sacrifice because it is the commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross We make mention of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ in all our Sacrifices saith St. Cyprian 3. We have yet an invincible proof that the Fathers of the third Age did not look upon the Eucharist as a true Sacrifice from the manner in which they answered the Pagans upon the reproach which they continually offered to them because they had no Sacrifices In the second Age Justin Martyr said That the Prayers and Thanksgivings of Saints and Believers were the only Sacrifices which were perfect and acceptable to God and were the only Sacrifices which Christians have learnt to Offer even then when they celebrated the Eucharist In truth this Author had lost either his understanding or his memory if the Eucharist it self had been a Propitiatory Sacrifice Athenagoras who lived in the same Age answered also the Pagans after the same manner What have I to do with Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings since God cares not for them He demands an unbloody Sacrifice a reasonable Service Can any thing be more express and more lovely than that which Minutius Felix says in answer to a Pagan that objected to him The Christians have no Temples nor Altars do you think that we hide what we adore under pretence that we have no Temples nor Altars The Sacrifice that ought to be offered to God is a good Mind a pure Conscience a sincere Faith it is to live Innocently exercise Justice abstain from Evil and prevent his Neighbour from Perishing this is to Sacrifice a fat Victim these are our Sacrifices this is our Service Origen answers absolutely after the same manner to the Objection which was made by the Pagan Celsus If we read Clemens of Alexandria he expresses himself almost in the same words Arnobius producing the Objection of the Pagans How then will some say that you are under no obligation to offer Sacrifice And answers after a manner very exact We are not at all obliged thereunto Lactantius answers no otherwise than those which went before Now it is a prodigious blindness in these Men not to have answered the Pagans You deceive your selves we have a Sacrifice and the most glorious of all Sacrifices For we offer the Body of Jesus Christ as a Propitatory Sacrifice to God his Father I intreat you my Brethren press your Converters and demand of them whether they dare say to a Pagan we have no other Sacrifices than Prayers and Thanksgivings as for true Sacrifices we have no need to offer them To Conclude my Brethren give attention to this last proof that the Ancients of the third Age did not account the Eucharist a true Sacrifice It is that they Consecrated and Celebrated this Sacrament out of Churches in private Houses and at their Meals besides their solemn Communions which were made in publick Assemblies they Celebrated the Mysteries in private and among their Domesticks This we see in a Letter of St. Cyprian where he disputes against certain persons who out of Mortification and Abstinence from Wine especially in the morning will not Celebrate the Eucharist but with Water Let not any one says he flatter himself with this consideration that although in the mornings they offer with Water alone nevertheless when they come to Supper they offer the Cup mixed with Wine and Water For when we eat this Supper we cannot call together all our people to Celebrate this Sacrament in all its truth in the presence of all our Brethren His sence is these Water drinkers against whom he disputes did not satisfie the Commandment and Institution of Christ Jesus to Celebrate with Wine by these private Communions which were made in Houses in which they mingled Wine with Water because they ought to follow the Institution of Jesus Christ and to Celebrate the Sacrament in its purity and integrity in the presence of all the Brethren and in the midst of publick Assemblies It appears then from thence 1. That they Celebrated it in private Houses in the Evening when they Supped together 2. That they there Consecrated the Cup and that it was not brought from Elce where 3. That the Bread as well as the Cup was Consecrated at the same instant for why should they Consecrate the Cup if they had not power to Consecrate the Bread 4. To conclude these Communions were private amongst a few-persons and out of the presence of the people I do not doubt at all but it is of these private Communions whereof Tertullian speaks in Chap. 3. of his Book concerning The Soldiers Crown We take says he the Sacrament of the Eucharist at meal-Meal-time as also at Morning Assemblies before day where we do not Communicate but at the hand of the Presidents It is a passage that Men do not or will not understand For the understanding of it we must know that Tertullian made this Book on the occasion of a Christian Soldier who would not set a Crown of leaves upon his Head because it was forbidden to Christians By this refusal he discovered he was a Christian and exposes himself to Martyrdom which he suffering many blamed him and said why did he refuse to bear his
Converters are not men of Fidelity to press you by Principles the falseness whereof they themselves confess for in the Pastoral letter of Monsieur de Meaux in his Catholick Exposition and every where else to hear him speak of the centre of Unity you would say that the Pope possessed this Title by divine Right and behold these Gentlemen profess to us That 't is by a handsome Usurpation tolerated and by the concession of Councils That which Councils have given him they may take away from him This makes it apparent how little of honesty there is in the Quotations which these Monsieurs make from St. Câ—prian who without doubt had a false Idea of the Unity of the Church so false and so ill formed that your Converters themselves will not dare to warrant it We have treated this matter at large in our Answer to Monsieur Nicholas where we have made it apparent that this false Idea of the Unity of the Church which St. Cyprian did communicate to St. Augustine did put the latter to that perplexity and confusion from which he could not withdraw himself on the subject of the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks In the following Letter we must say something as well on the point of Antiquity as that of Controversie and we will make it evident also in the same Letter that supposing this Roman Idea of Unity to be false all their Arguments and Sophisms vanish and come to nothing 15. January 1687. The ELEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity the end of the History of the Christianity of the Third Age concerning Tradition and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie Reflections upon a Writing lately addressed to the Reformed of France A Continuation of the matter concerning the Unity of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ I Have not obliged my self to acquaint you with all the sad Accidents that do betide us in our Exile and Persecution but the death of the excellent Mr. Claud is an event so grievous that I cannot forbear speaking one word concerning it God hath taken him to himself since our last Letter He was the Father of our Prophets and we may well cry after him My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof God had formerly affixed him in a particular manner to the conduct of the most considerable of your Congregations but Providence made him become in a manner your universal Pastor by the care that he took to defend you from the dangerous Sophistry of those that endeavoured to seduce you and he was herein successful in â—uch a manner as might cover all our Enemies with shame and confusion I acquaint you with the loss that you have sustained that you may lament and look on it as a mark of the continuation of God's displeasure against you His Justice was not yet satisfied the Arrows of his Quiver were not all drawn forth this stroke was still owing to us I pray God this may be the last If you be grieved your Enemies you may be sure rejoyce at it but they must know that if the Ashes and Blood of the Martyrs hath been the seed of the Church the Tombs of the Prophets do preserve their Spirit which passeth to their Disciples If the Grave inclose the Flesh and Bones of this great Man his Writings will preserve his Wit Knowledge and Illuminations and God will not suffer a failure of Persons which shall prophesie on his Tomb for the maintenance of those Victories that he hath gained for the Truth God will do his work in your fight and you shall see this Church which is dead rise again after four days but it may be he will do this work himself and when you see those fall and drop away one after another whose Writings and Discourses might be of use to ruine the success and triumph of Lyes be persuaded that God will derive his Praise from the mouths of Children and that he that laid the Foundation of the Kingdom of his Son by Fishermen will re-establish the Ruines thereof by earthen Vessels into which he will pour his Treasures He whose loss we lament was whilst he lived one of those Instruments which God served himself of for your Edification and Defence Whilst you pour out tears upon his Grave and throw your showers there you may gather sweetness thence Out of the Eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness Death that devours and takes all things from us cannot hinder us from searching and finding our Edification in the Remains of this great Man. His last Words will serve as a Support to our Faith. It was not the pleasure of God that he should shed his Blood for the defence of his Truth but he hath made his last Words which are the effusion of his Spirit and of his Soul give Testimony to those Truths which he had preach'd and defended I have says he laboured all my life in the search of the best Religion and being now about to give up my Soul to God I do declare That I have not found any but our own which I have so often defended and in which I am now about to dye which is the true way to Heaven The Words of dying men are the proper Voice of Conscience for in that last moment Dissimulation has no place so that they are the Seal of all the Truths which he hath so gloriously defended My design will not permit me to speak all on this Subject which it were necessary you should know I shall leave it to some other Person and return to the matter of our preceding Letters This shall consist of one point of Antiquity and another of Controversie We are to finish the History of the Christianity of the Third Age. And after we have fortified you against the Illusions which your Seducers frame upon some Passages of the Writings of St. Cyprian and Tertullian on the Subject of Repentance Auricular Confession and Satisfaction I must also fortifie you against the Snares that they compose for you from the Writings of the same Tertullian on the Subject of Tradition for they do not fail to tell you That the Fathers nearest the Apostles had a great respect for the unwritten Word that they did often dispute against Hereticks by Tradition and that Tertullian himself did maintain That there was no other way of disputing against them But to secure you from this Snare Learn First That when Tertullian disputes and proves that which he advances by Tradition it is almost alway about indifferent Ceremonies and matters of practice As in the Book concerning the Soldiers Crown where he proves by Tradition the bearing of no Crown upon the Head of Dipping three times in Baptism of giving Milk and Honey to be eaten by the newly baptized of giving Alms and Oblations for the Dead of not Washing seven days after Baptism 'T
't is Soulier the Priest a man the most given up to the Spirit of Calumny that ever was in the World the most desperate and frontless Lyer that Popery ever bred up and to make his Elogy in one word Bipedum nequissimus the greatest of Knaves This man publishes in the year 1682. a furious Libel against the Reformed under the Title of The History of the Edicts of Pacification in which amongst other Proofs of our lewd and Criminal Conduct prosecuted and carried on to the end he makes use of this Act drawn up says he by the Synod of Montpazier in the form and words in which it is here seen The Pastors and Elders of the Churches of Lower Guyenne Assembled in the Synod at Montpazier the first of July 1659 and some days following UPON the report made by Mr. Ricottier The first was the Minister of Clairac the other of Nerac of the Care that he hath taken with Mr. Vignier now absent at the desire of some of the Society to obtain that our Brethren of England should concern themselves in the preservation of our Liberties which they endeavour every day to destroy wherein they think he hath laboured happily by the interposition and assistance of Mr. Daret And having learnt from the Mouth of Mr. Daret and seen by Letters which have been written to him and whereof he had given a Copy to the said Mr. Ricottier that to maintain us in our Priviledges and prevent the dissipation of our Flocks they offer not only to interceed for us but also in case of refusal to bear Arms into this Province if we promise them Cromwell was yet alive and give them assurance to put into their hands all the Cities and places whereof we can dispose The Society approving the Care of the said Messieurs Ricottier and Vignier after having all promised by Oath made to God not to reveal a Secret of this importance return Thanks to the said Mr. Daret for what he had already done to make it successful and do intreat him to go assoon as he can and know what assurances they desire and promise on our part that we shall give all those that are possible and as a Pledge thereof they have drawn up the present Act which shall be dispatcht to him to this end and purpose and the Original put into the hands of the said Vignier to be secretly and faithfully kept there until the business can be executed to the Glory of God and the Comfort of our poor Afflicted Flocks c. The Original is Signed by the President the Assistants and the Register of the Synod This Imposture caused all those that saw it to tremble and the Reformed stirred all that they could to justifie themselves from this Calumny but this was no time to succeed in an Enterprise of Justification for Persons whom they had resolved to destroy after the most cruel manner in the World and whom by consequence they would look upon as Criminals Nevertheless the Synod of the Province of Guyennâ— did what they could and took the Resolution expressed in the Act of the last Synod held in the Province and I think she last Synod that was held in France Behold the Act faithfully printed according to the Copy Signed by the Secretary himself An Extract from the Legier Book of the Acts of the Synod of the Reformed Churches of Lower Guyenne held in the City of the upper Thonneins by the Permission of the King the ninth of December and some days following in the year 1683. ARTICLE the Sixth THE Deputies of the Church of Burdeaux having represented to the Society that in a Book made by Mr. Soulier the Priest printed at Paris 1682 Intituled A History of the Edicts of Pacification the said Soulier in the 393 page of that Book and in that which follows it hath reported an Act which he pretends to be made by the Synod of Monpazier to give thanks to Mr. Ricottier and Vignier both Ministers for the Care they had taken to engage the English in the Interests of the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom with these two Circumstances noted in the Margin of that Book the one that the said Mr. Ricottier was Minister of Clairac the other that Cromwel was yet alive then and at the time of the said Act adding that the Original thereof had been put into the hands of the said Vignier and taken in his Closet after his Death by Mr. Monier Minister of Nerac that this Act was put into the hands of Monsieur the late Bishop of Agen and whereas this Act is a suppositious piece and injurious to the Honour of the Synod and to the Memory of the said Ricottier who was then Minister of the Church of Burdeaux they account themselves particularly concerned to make the Calumny of this Act appear and also their inviolable Fidelity to the Service of the King therefore they represented the said Book and likewise the said Legier Book of the Synod held at Montpazier the first of July 1659 desiring the Commissioners to view the said Book in the page marked and quoted and likewise the Legier Book of the Synod of Montpazier but the Gentlemen the Commissaries said it was no part of their Commission to examine Books or Papers of preceeding Synods that it appertained to the Society to look to their justification where and as they should think good that for their parts they pretended not to take any cognizance thereof Whereupon the Society after they had reflected upon the Importance and meaning of the said Act and having examined it together with the Legier Book of the Synod held at Montpazier the first of July 1659 it appeared by comparing these two pieces that the aforesaid Act printed in the Book of Soulier is not in the said Papers of the Synod and moreover that the falseness of this pretended Act is clearly proved by two Circumstances in matter of Fact one whereof is that by the Table of the said Legier Book of the Synod of Montpazier it appears that the late Mr. Ricottier was not Minister of the Church of Clairac the other Circumstance is this that 't is certain that Oliver Cromwel died the thirteenth of September 1658 and so it was impossible that the Churches of this Province could have any Correspondence with him in the year 1659. After which the Society resolved that humble Remonstrances should be made to his Majesty to assure him of the inviolable Fidelity that the said Churches had preserved and should always preserve for his Service and to desire that he would be pleased to appoint that the said Soulier should be Condemned to make them such satisfaction as he should judge fit with prohibition both to him and all others that for the time to come they injure them no more by Calumnies of that nature The present Extract is taken from the Papers of the Act of the Synod held at the City of the Upper Thonniens the ninth of September and some days
number of their Nobility they Massacred more than three thousand of them they resolved to seize the Prince of Condy and the Admiral to cut off the Head of this and commit the other to perpetual Imprisonment To conclude they did not re-take their Arms but to repel those which were taken against them and to give way to the greatest necessity that ever was of defending themselves By these two Examples we may judge the Fidelity of Soulier in the rest The second thing which this Priest says upon occasion of that which we had said That in the Year 1659 we were not treated so ill as to incline us to a Conspiracy with the English 't was that even then the Court designed our Ruine that we knew it well and that it already appeared by many Declarations which had been published to our disadvantage which he quotes To this we answer That the design of the Clergy was to destroy us we do not doubt and that it may be the Court might have the same intents and purposes that 't is true some Declarations had been already published against us But we say That the fear of a future and uncertain Evil or some little present Evils did never engage us to make use of actual Conspiracies for our Preservation The Declarations and Decrees which the Clergy obtained against us were as yet nothing and then did us no Evil. The King himself granted us a National Synod at Laudun in the Year 1659 a Favour which had not been conceded to us since the Year 1641 an evident proof that the Court was not then under those wicked Inclinations in which it hath been since engaged or at least if it had already conceived the design of destroying us it was not possible for us to guess at it seeing their actions spake the contrary The third Argument of Falshood drawn from the State of England and France But to the sence of this second Argument drawn from the Condition of the Affairs of the Protestants in France we will add a third drawn from the State of Affairs in France and England at that time which will shew both the Ignorance and Bruitishness of Soulier himself and the other Authors of this Imposture They are pleased to affirm That in the Month of July in the Year 1659 we did treat with the English about their entring France We must enquire whether it be not a thing against all Sence at that time to attribute to the English a design of entring into France with Weapons in their hands through Guyenne First we must know that then the English were in the most strict Alliance with France which could be betwixt two States The English had caused their Troops to pass into Flanders to joyn those of the King Dunkirk was joyntly Besieged by both Nations it was taken from the Spaniards put into the hands of the English to the astonishment of all Europe and the scandal of all true French-men yea there were some that had the boldness to complain thereof by their Writings This may be seen in a Writing made by Monsieur Sillon to justifie the Conduct of Cardinal Mazarine his Master and in some of the printed Letters of Monsieur Coster Arch-Deacon of Mans. This Union of England and France was yet so great in 1660 that an English Garrison was received at Amiens to whom the publick Exercise of their Religion was allowed in the City This obliged the General Assembly of the Clergy to make complaint thereof to the King and to content them a Promise was made to give to the English a Farm-house in the Suburbs there to exercise their Religion out of the City Behold the English and French at Peace and perfect Correspondence and their Armies united against the Spaniard and France in so great a confidence of them that it delivers to them the important place Dunkirk and receives their Garrisons into their proper Cities When men make Fictions if they are not directly brutish they choose proper seasons for them he should have assigned to this Conspiracy of the Protestants of Guyenne some time in which France had been in War with England but in truth 't is to have a distempered mind to take a time of the most perfect correspondence that ever was between the two States But this is not all 't is needful to see in the second place the Condition of the Affairs of the English in themselves to know whether there be any probability that they then had a design of entring France It must therefore be remembred that Cromwell died in the Month of September 1658 and that from that time till the return of Charles the Second England was always in a dreadful Confusion as may be seen by the History of that time and by the News Books published one after another Richard was proclaimed Protector immediately after the death of his Father and he who hath collected the News of that time tells us See the Collection of News Ordinary and Extraordinary Relations and Reports of things happening in this Kingdom and elsewhere in the Year 1659. Printed at Paris 1660 with Priviledge That Richard did not think he could do better than preserve himself in the Friendship of those whose Alliance his Father had sought after and to continue War against those against whom his Father had declared it He continued therefore in a strict Alliance with France and at War with Spain Behold the man which they make to Treat with the Protestants of Guyenne to carry his Arms into France against the only Support that he could have to maintain himself in the place which he possessed who was otherwise uncapable thereof If Richard were not a mad man I don't understand how he could engage in this Affair This new Protector calls a Parliament in the beginning of the Year 1659 which is exactly the Year of the Conspiracy of Montpazier the Extraordinary of the sixth of March speaks of the opening of this Parliament and says That from the fifteenth of February to the twentieth it was employed in examining the Title and Rights of my Lord Protector In the following Sessions they endeavoured to Regulate the Power of this new Protector and to retrench the Excesses which he enjoyed to the prejudice of the Rights and Liberties of the Nation From that time behold Richard attacqued and yet he enterprizes new Work abroad which alone required a man and a whole Kingdom besides From the thirteenth of March there were great Contests in the Parliament touching the manner how it ought to be composed whether they should there permit two Houses the Upper and the Lower what persons ought to be received into the Upper House in case they suffered it to subsist These Differences continued all the Month of April with the utmost heat and with great violence and rage Behold these people in a good condition to carry Arms into France In the Extraordinary of the fifth of May is seen a large Remonstrance presented to the
one without entering into the other You cannot worship God without partaking in the Worship of Idols You cannot partake in the Heavenly Sacrament of Jesus Christ without participation in a false and corrupt Sacrifice and without prostrating yourselves before the Idol of Bread. You cannot confess Jesus Christ Head of the Church without adhering to a false Head to the Head of a Body which is altogether Antichristian You cannot call upon God in publick Worship unless at the same time you call upon Creatures It remains therefore that we prove unto you that Popery so confounded and mixt with Christianity is mortal impure and intollerable The second general Advice which I have to give you is That well to understand Popery you must not look upon it in the Books of your Convertors in the Explications of the Catholick Doctrine or other painted Tables which disguise to you the Religion into which they force you to enter Discharge yourselves also from this wicked imagination That we ought to attribute nothing to Popery but what is ordained by its Councils For there is nothing more false and more distant from truth then that the Councils have not expressed in their Decisions all those frightful Excesses into which Popery is fallen therefore they are not to be imputed to her 'T is a wicked consequence all that is done in a Church be it by order of her Councils be it by use and common custom ought to be imputed to her 'T is true that St. Austine in a passage which we quoted above would not grant that the Manichees should impute certain Superstitions which the People practised to the Church but 't was because there were few persons in comparison to others that fell into them And the Teachers condemned them instead of supporting and maintaining them But we impute nothing to Popery but Extravagances universally practised and defended by their most famous Doctors I will give you yet a third Advice 'T is that for the true understanding of Popery and all its Deformities you must not look on it in certain places and at certain times For Example At this day in France they shew you the Popish Religion in a smooth and polished condition with respect to the Authority of the Pope they tell you that to speak properly he is no more than the first Bishop he is not the Vicar of JESUS CHRIST that he is not the true Head of the Church nor the true Center of Unity that he is not Infallible that he has no more Power over the Bishops than the Bishops have over him they speak to you with great indifference concerning the Worship of Images as a thing esteemed not very necessary they do extreamly mollifie the Invocation of Saints reducing it to a small matter The Bishops give order that little of those popular Devotions which are capable of giving you scandal be practised in their Diocesses I do declare to you that it is not by the small Country of France nor by this little space of present time that you ought to look on Popery to know and see all its Deformities In what follows we shall have occasion to shew you that all these Reformations are nothing that they are fictitious and that although they should go further than I know not what appearances it would not suffice but in expectation of that I advise you at present my Brethren that for a true understanding of Popery it behoves you to look on it every-where and in all times You must behold it in Italy and Spain as we as in France and Germany you must look on it in all preceeding Ages at least in the seven hundred or eight hundred Years which went before our Reformation observing these three Rules 1. That you look on Popery such as it is in itself distinct from Christianity 2. That you look on it in its practice and universal usage 3. To conclude that you look on it above all in Spain and Italy as well as elsewhere and that you look on it in all those times which preceeded the Reformation If you do thus say I I do maintain that you cannot behold the Deformitie of Popery without horrour First you will there see a Head which calls himself the most Holy Lord his Holiness and the Vicar of Jesus Christ who bears on him all the Characters of Antichrist He sits in the Temple of God as if he were God he makes himself to be adored as God he has his seat at Rome the City upon seven Hills he hath ten Kings under him which give Obedience to him he is clothed in Scarlet as the Whore in the Revelations he bears a Triple Crown he has upon his Forehead the names of Blasphemy calling himself God on Earth the Vicar of Jesus Christ the Spouse of the Church the Mouth which pronounces infallible Oracles he sits upon a Beast i. e. on an Empire viz. the Roman Empire which he hath raised up again He makes the Image of the Beast to speak and be adored he hath established in the Church the true Image of the Roman Empire and causes this Image to be adored on pain of Death he hath two Horns two Powers as a Lamb the Temporal and Spiritual speaks like a Dragon and is the Protector of Lies and Falshood He works false Signs and Wonders to support his false Religion his Teachers make profession of Austerity Celibate Abstinence and Fasting and refuse Marriage He hath his seat in Babilon that City of Merchandize where all things are sold and where they make Merchandize even of the Souls of Men He causes his Mark to be born i. e. his Profession upon the hands and upon the forehead The name of Latine Church and Latine Pope contain exactly 666 which is the number of the Beast This Pope this pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ is seen under a Canopy or Cloth of State in pomp and in magnificence he is seen trampling crowned Heads under his Feet making himself to be carried on the shoulders of Emperours causing Princes to kiss his Feet He hath been seen as a furious Lion in all Ages covering the Earth with Blood dethroning Emperours pulling off their Crowns Absolving Subjects from the Oaths of Fidelity given to their Kings and thereby putting a Sword into their hands from whence have followed cruel and barbarous Civil Wars He has been seen encouraging the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father Subjects against their Kings and stirring them up to run their Swords into the Bowels of their Soveraigns He has been seen putting all Europe into a flame and carrying confusions blood and disorder every-where by his Ambition He hath been seen fighting with Competitors called Anti-popes conducting Armies shedding Bloud dispeopling Cities and laying wast Fields by Fire and Sword He has been seen with his Arms in his hands like a mad man filling the World with Horrour and Desolation to maintain his pretended Succession to the Inheritance of Christ Jesus He has been seen
being made by men Behold an admirable Divine which believes that a man can make a God and do a Miracle if I may so say that exhausts all the Divine Power To conclude to these three or four words of St. Austin That none eats the flesh of Jesus Christ before he hath adored it we ought to oppose what he says in the third Book concerning the Christian Doctrine †De Doctr. Christ lib. 3. cap. 9. That every one knows the Sacrament of Baptism and the celebration of the Body and Bloud of our Lord that 't is well known whereunto they have respect and that they are reverenced not by a servitude i.e. after a carnal manner but by a spiritual liberty Here St. Austin desires that we give to Baptism the same honour as to the Sacrament of the Eucharist We must confess if St. Austin did adore the Sacrament we ought to make no scruple therein we owe him this complaisance for that he hath spoken as absolutely concerning it as our selves For during the space of two hundred years past there hath not been either Zuinglian or Calvinist which hath spoken more boldly or more clearly against the Real Presence and Transubstantiation If this suffice not to know what kind of Worship was given to the Eucharist we must learn it from the History of matters of fact We learn from Mr. de Valois in his Notes upon Eusebius ‖ Euseb lib. 7. cap. 9. Hist Eccles That the Believers which were to communicate approached the Altar and there received the Body of Jesus Christ from the hand of the Priest standing upright and not on their knees as at this day The Author has passed for a good Roman Catholick he is learned and he is a Modern Writer so that he wants nothing to give him an authority in the hearts of the New Converts who refer themselves much more concerning Religion to what their new Authors speak of it then to what is said thereof by those that are more ancient And indeed how could they communicate otherwise than standing since they prayed standing on the Lords day and the fifty days which are from Easter to Whitsontide in memory of the Resurrection When they were ready to consecrate they put out the Catechumens i.e. well nigh half the Christians is it probable that they would deprive them of the comfort of adoring their Saviour if it had been then the custom of adoring him in the Sacrament In those Ages they did communicate Infants and how could they exact Adoration before the Manducation since Infants are not capable of performing an Act of Adoration I may also reckon amongst those Articles concerning which there was no change in the fourth and fifth Ages that of Purgatory For the opinion of a separate place where Souls were to be kept till the day of Judgment without seeing the face of God but without suffering any thing there was the Opinion of the greatest men of those Ages of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom St. Hillary St. Jerome and under names so great it may not be doubted but it was the prevailing Opinion 'T was the third place of the Christians that then were but as yet there were but few footsteps of a fourth place seen 'T is true that in these Ages a man may shew you some passages of Gregory Nyssen and even some of St. Jerome which speak of a Purgation of Sins which ought to be made after death by the means of a Penal Fire But this is not the Purgatory of Popery 't is that of Origen according to whom we have seen that all intelligent Creatures without excepting Devils and wicked men who die impenitently ought to be recovered and re-established Originism did not die with Origen and many famous Fathers of the fourth Age were infatuated with it Those which know the History of the Quarrels between St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius are not ignorant thereof I think indeed that few men did then dare to maintain the Opinion of Origen crude as he left it touching the future salvation of the Devils and the damned But many endeavoured to soften and smooth it and said at least Christians who died in the profession of the Faith but without Holiness and Repentance would one day be recovered 'T is without doubt that this Opinion mitigated and softned was one step which made the Church fall into the Error of Purgatory For after they had restrained those that were to be purged by a Penal Fire to such as died without Holiness and Repentance by little and little they restrained them to such who dying without Repentance had not satisfied the Canonical Penances of the Church St. Austin was not of the opinion of those who believed that ill Christians dying without repentance were to be purged by fire nevertheless he thought it probable * Enchir. cap. 67 that those who had too much affection for temporal good things during the space of this Life after death would be afflicted with grief for the loss of them and that this would serve them for a Castigation Nevertheless he proposes this but as a doubtful conjecture It is not incredible says he †Enchir. cap. 69. but that something of like nature happens after death and it may be disputed whether it be so that some Believers shall be saved sooner or later by a purging fire according as they have more or less loved these perishing good things By this Purgative Fire or Purgatory he understands nothing but the grief of being deprived of these perishing things And this is that which he means in the same Book ‖ Enchir. cap. 109. That during the whole space of time between a mans death and the last Resurrection Souls are in hidden Receptacles according as they are worthy of repose or misery with respect to what they have been during this life A man cannot deny but this is Purgatory in its birth but it was not as yet believed and received of all the Church nor hath it been received nor perfected any where but in the Latin Church Behold that which I have to tell you concerning the changes happening in Doctrines and Worship I will not pass on to the following Ages because 't is not my design to give you a compleat History of all the changes which have happened in the Church for 1700 years I only desire to confound the boldness of Monsieur de Meaux and such-like which dare to affirm that Christianity in their hands is in the same estate in which it was when it passed from the Apostles to their immediate Successors and that time hath changed nothing that is essential in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church that insensible changes whereof some men speak to you are but Dreams Behold say I enough to ruine these rash affirmations of your Converters for from this short History which I have given you of the Doctrine and Worship of the Church for the space of 500 years it appears 1. That during these five Ages
of the Roman Doctors They oppress you with Sophisms to convince you that there ought to be a Judge an infallible Interpreter of Scripture a Church that cannot err Answer them in one word Although all this which you say should be true it would be no advantage to you we must seek this Church and this infallible Interpreter elsewhere for 't is certain you have erred I come to the second sence viz. That the Scripture makes a Light which renders the Church visible because it shews with the Finger the Roman Church as the true Church to the exclusion of all others Now this is a Falshood sensible to all the World the Holy Scripture speaks not one word of the Church of Rome or of her Infallibility 'T is true there is an Epistle addressed to the Church of Rome but St. Paul so little thought of her as infallible that he speaks to her as a Church that would fall or at least as one that might be cut off from the true Olive and from the root of Jesus Christ There remains only the third sence in which your Converters can say that the Scripture forms a Light which makes the Church of Rome visible 'T is that the Doctrine of the Scripture is found perfectly conformable to that of the Church of Rome That is it which they must say if they will say any thing that is solid for the truth is that there is not any mark of the Church but this viz. Her conformity to the Holy Scripture Let alone therefore all this pretended heap of Marks of the Church which are either false or equivocal and keep you close to this alone Tell your Converters if you will make your Church visible to me let me see it conformable to the Scripture and 't is there you will reduce them to Extremities 'T is here that we have an evident proof that Popery is an Antichristian Religion Behold a proof to which all the subtilty of Hell can never oppose any thing we say then every Society and every Religion which hath nothing conformable with the Law of Jesus Christ is not the true Religion now Popery hath nothing conformable to the Law of Jesus Christ therefore it hath nothing of Christianity I intreat you to give attention to this If a Sect of the Turks calling themselves Mahometans had nothing among them like to the Alcoran which is the Law of Mahomet would you not tell them that they lie If the Jews calling themselves Jews should re-establish a Worship which hath nothing like the Worship prescribed by Moses would any one endure that they should say they were of the Religion of Moses Every Religion hath its Books and every Sect to shew that 't is of such a Religion ought to prove its conformity with those Books Common sence say thus If therefore Popery have nothing at all like the Writings of Christians 't is clear that 't is not Christianity Now this is it which we take for granted and which we are ready to prove before all sorts of Judges even Jews and Pagans viz. That Popery hath no conformity with the Scripture which is the common Law of Christians To be convinced of this my Brethren first separate Christianity from Popery in the Roman Church and don 't suffer yourselves to be blinded by what your Converters say unto you Are not we Christians Do we not believe one God in three Persons one Jesus crucified for the sins of men one Resurrection one Paradise and one Hell Does not the Scripture teach all this Is not our Religion therefore conformable to Revelation Answer them thereon Yea you are Christians in all that you believe with us but you are Antichristians in that wherein you believe without us These points whereof you speak are in the Scripture 't is true but 't is my Religion rather than yours 't is Christianity whereof 't is true I acknowledge you have preserved the Fundamentals But this makes nothing for your Religion which is Popery it makes nothing for Purgatory Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images and Reliques the Sacrifice of the Mass the Adoration of the Sacrament the Latine Tongue in the Worship of God a Communion without the Cup a Head of the Church besides Jesus Christ Behold Popery and 't is that which we maintain hath no conformity with the Scripture Indeed when your Converters will prove their Doctrines by the Scripture it seems they have renounced common Sence as well as Faith and Honesty To understand this there is no need to examine any Books of Controversie as they would fain perswade you there needs no more but eyes to open and read them For Example When they endeavour to prove the Pope is the Soveraign Head of the Church the Center of Unity the Mouth that utters Oracles and him to whom we must adhere if we will be saved and they produce to us for the whole proof these words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not feed my sheep When say I they produce this and produce nothing else to prove the most important point of Popery which is the Authority of the Pope I do maintain that he must be stricken with a Spirit of Blockishness to regard it as proof He must I dare say be abandoned to a Spirit of Reprobation to suppose that the Scripture that tells us of Pastors and Teachers as Guides of the Church should not speak one word of this great Office of Pope and Soveraign Pastor When for the Sacrifice of the Mass propitiatory for the living and the dead they produce to us as proof from the holy Scriptures these Texts Melchizedeck offered bread and wine they shall offer to my Name a pure sacrifice from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Soveraign wisdom hath prepared her victuals and mingled her wine We have an Altar of which they have no right to partake which serve the Tabernacle Do this in remembrance of me When say I they produce these passages for the intire proof of the Sacrifice of the Mass are you not tempted to believe they do not speak in good earnest for nothing seems more opposite to sound sense To prove that we must invocate Saints they refer us to those words of Jacob The Angel which delivered me from all evil keep the lads and those of Eliphaz to Job And to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thy self that is to say of the Saints which are upon Earth and those of Daniel Have mercy upon Israel for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. To prove that we must prostrate our selves before Images and worship Reliques they produce those words of God to Moses Pluck off thy shoes for the place where thou standest is holy ground and those of David Worship before his footstool and those of St. Paul to Timothy From thy childhood thou hast learnt the holy Scriptures Here is nothing to be laught at
the year 1606 was made the Treaty called the Pacification between Rodolphus Emperour and King of Hungary and Stephen Bothskey Kis-ma-ria The first Article whereof grants That the Reformed Hungarians should not in any thing be troubled in the exercise of their Religion and that all the Churches taken from them during the Troubles should be restored to them All the Kings of Hungary which have been since Matthias Ferdinand the Second and Ferdinand the Third have confirmed these Priviledges by their Declarations To conclude the present Emperour in the year 1655 when he was crowned King of Hungary confirmed by an express Declaration all that his Predecessours had done The eleventh Article of that Declaration concedes That for the Conservation of Peace amongst all the Orders and States of Hungary the business of Religion shall remain free without receiving any Disturbance according to the Constitution of Vienna and the Articles published before the Coronation in such sort that the exercise of Religion shall be entirely free for the Barons Lords Nobles free Citizens and generally for all Estates and Orders of Hungary as also for the Towns and Villages which will embrace it so that no person of what estate or condition soever may be hindered by his Majesty or other Temporal Lords in any manner or under any pretence whatsoever from the free use and exercise of the said Religion Things were in this estate in the year 1671 when a Jesuite named George Barze Titular Bishop of Warradine calling himself Counsellour to his Imperial Majesty published a Book with this Title Truth declared to all the World which makes it appear by three Arguments that his Imperial Majesty is not obliged to Tollerate the Lutheran and Calvinist Sect in Hungary It is easie to understand what a Work of this Title that has a Jesuite for its Author doth contain The design thereof was to justifie the Persecutions which had been already made against the Protestants of Hungary as well as those they were preparing to make For already a long time before the publication of this Writing some particular Lords had set up for cruel Persecutors Among others Francis Nadasti Paul Esthersiazy and many others at the instigation of the Priests and Jesuites had employed both fire and sword they had massacred the Reformed in their Churches hanged them up on the bars of their Church-doors and many others they had thrown head-long from Turrets The Arch-bishops Bishops and Popish Gentlemen had thus used them and also pulled down the Churches in the Countries which held and depended on them The free Cities and those who depended only on the Emperour were exempt from this storm but they shall have their turn on the occasion following Many great Hungarian Lords of the Popish Religion as the Nadasties the Serinies the Frangipanes joyn themselves to Francis Rakotsqui and took Arms against the Emperour for private Quarrels The Troops of Austria on this occasion entred into Hungary on the year 1670 and defeated these Rebels The Arch-bishops Bishops and Jesuites of Hungary thought they must not let slip the opportunities they now had to persecute the Protestants They served themselves of these insolent victorious Troops in all the free Cities to do the same Violences which had been done by particular Lords against the Reformed Without form of Process they took away their Churches they banished the Ministers they put them in Prison they massacred a great number they charged the People and even the Nobility with Taxes Souldiers and Garisons they offered a thousand and a thousand Violences to oblige people to change their Religion All the Ecclesiasticks every one by himself acted like unbridled Furies The Prisons were filled with these miserable Wretches the Churches were razed every-where in the most places there were horrible Massacres and even whole Villages burnt because they were wholly inhabited by Protestants they hung the Ministers at the Doors of their Churches There was one named John Baki a Minister of the Church of Comana who was burnt At Cassovia and Posonium they put to death a great number of persons of all Sexes of all Ages and all Qualities They banished all those whom they dare not kill In one word all Hungary became a place like Hell for the Reformed where death punishments and torments presented themselves every-where before their eyes To give some colour of Justice to these Violences they established a Chamber at Posonium made up of all such as were found most cruel Enemies to the Protestants They summon'd the people before they summon'd their Pastors hoping that they would fall the more easily by the Temptation and that fear would cause them to change their Religion those which appeared and supported themselves on their innocency were cast into Prisons oppressed with Fines persecuted after a hundred manners and constrained at last to change their Religion To those which had courage enough not to renounce the Truth they presented a Writing to be subscribed by which they made them promise they would forsake their Pastors that they would not protect them and that they would not oppose the Priests in taking possession of their Churches On which Condition they promised to let them live in peace in hope and expectation that the Spirit would enlighten and Convert them Some fell and made their subscriptions others perished through misery famine and torments in the prisons When they had thus subdued and abused the people they turn themselves to their Pastors they established three Chambers of Justice the one at Tinew and two at Posonium before whom they summoned at first a small number of Pastors of the Confession of Ausburgh They appeared to the number of thirty two or thirty three the 25th of September 1673 they presented them a Writing to be subscribed importing That it was their will and pleasure that they should say that to escape the sentence which might be pronounced against them for their Rebellion they did consent to one of these three things Either to Renounce all exercise of their Office for ever and to live as good Subjects privately in the Realm or to go voluntarily into Exile with promise never to return again into the Estates of the Emperour or to embrace the Catholick Religion in which case they might remain in the Kingdom and enjoy all sorts of Advantages there The providence of God permitted this unjust and altogether unrighteous procedure to the end that these poor accused persons might have an opportunity to justifie themselves from the Crime of Rebellion whereof they were accused Is it so that men used to proceed against those that are Traytors And has it been usual to punish them with a voluntary Exile or by a simple Renunciation of their Offices and Charges They did all that they could to oblige the Pastors to subscribe this Writing and the most part of them fearing death did subscribe confessing themselves culpable though they were innocent and went voluntarily into Banishment Section This attempt having succeed sufficiently well